Crimson Reaper or Thousand Master REWRITE
by Anduil
Summary: A dark smile was gracing his lips. He never thought something so common, something present in every person could be so...addicting. He grinned a toothy grin "Come on, be negative." he spoke his eyes glowing a dangerous crimson.
1. How everything started

Tenth of October year X766

"Come on, Kushina, you can do it." A blonde man encouraged his wife, who was in the process of birthing their child.

"SHUT UP MINATO!" she screamed pained "How about you try birthing a child?" she asked annoyed

The blonde man was Minato Namikaze. He looked to be somewhere in his early to mid twenties, was a little over six feet tall and had blonde hair. He wore long black pants, a grey jacket with two thin black lines going down the arms and two larger ones at the collar and one at the bottom of the jacket. His feet were covered in a pair of black sandals.

Kushina was a red haired woman, whose hair could just as well be described as scarlet. She looked to be in her early twenties and was at least a foot shorter than her husband. She wore a white hospital gown.

Suddenly an earthquake shook the hospital, debris falling from the ceiling, lights flickering. Large amounts of screaming could be heard from the streets, as another quake shook the building.

"What is going out there?" Minato asked himself more than anyone else and took a look outside the window.

There he saw a large black Monster. It dwarfed all of the buildings with its size. It had large glowing red eyes and was completely black. On its back were two large leathery wings. Six horns adorned it's face. Two curving towards the top like it might for some sort of devil, another two almost straight to the sides, like some form of tusks and a last pair curving forward in front of it. At the same time it had its gaping maw opened, revealing a large set of sharp teeth. It had four large fingers, that resembled wicked talons more than anything else. The bottom of the monster lacked any feet or legs instead it looked like it was some sort of writhing mass of shadows.

He sent a glance over to his wife and cursed his luck.

'Couldn't this demon have attacked on another day.' He thought, though he knew it was futile question "You take good care of her and see to it that my son is born healthy." He spoke to the doctor assisting with the birth and then directed his words towards his wife "I'll be back soon, I promise, but I can't let everyone die." And he disappeared in a yellow flash.

Although pained Kushina managed to smile "He is becoming a father and he is still concerned with saving peoples life's."

Minato appeared outside the hospital some distance away from the raging Demon. Besides him was Hiruzen Sarutobi the old Village Elder, whose Nickname was 'The Professor'. The old man was just a bit smaller than him, as one could clearly see that being 67 years of age had taken its toll on his body. What little hair was left on his head was a silvery grey color. His back had a slight hunch to it. He wore a large grey robe with a high collar. Hiruzen was already expecting Minato.

"Be careful Minato, that's Elathan. It is said Zeref created him from a Lacrima with whom he caught the light of an eclipse. His Darkness attack's are incredibly dangerous." The old man informed and warned the blond of the threat he was going to face.

"Don't worry old Man, you taught me well." The blonde smirked "Besides, with my Light Magic I should be well prepared to face him."

"Good Luck, Minato." The old man wished the blonde, who disappeared in a burst of speed towards the demon, well.

Minato stared at the gigantic demon and called upon his Magic. He thrust his hands with his two palms side by side in front of him "Light Beam." A yellow magic circle appeared and a bright beam of light shot towards the behemoth, who cried out in pain scratched by the attack, but otherwise the demon only seemed to be getting more angry.

The gaping maw of the monster opened and a large ball of shadows began to grow between the fangs.

'I can't let that hit the Village!' Minato realized and created his 'Prismatic Barrier' just as the attack was flying towards the village. The dark orb hit the barrier and stopped, before it curved and was reflected towards the demon.

The shadow beast made no move to dodge the attack and it crashed with great velocity into it. The black beast didn't even release a roar, because as the smoke screen was lifted it wasn't damaged in the slightest, it even seemed invigorated.

'Stupid, Minato, stupid.' He chastised himself 'What made you think an attack from its own element could hurt that thing?'

He calmed himself down 'There are not much options I have left.' He realized and was regretting what he had to do. He called upon every bit of Magic Power in him "_In the brightest day, in the blackest night I will become _- One with the Light!" His Light Magic began to envelope him. Eventually he seemed to have turned into a being of pure Light. This was one of the Techniques he had created. For a short period of time, Light Magic he cast was twice maybe even more so effective, but the downside was Darkness Magic was even more effective against him in this Form then even before.

Elathan realized that the small Human might now be a real threat and swiped with his massive claws at him, slicing through a few houses along the way, cutting through all those who didn't manage to leave their homes in time. His red eyes glow intensified, but the light man seemed to be much faster as he jumped on top of his arm, racing up to his face and unleashing a barrage of light beams.

Elathan roared in Pain and fired another Shadow Bomb towards the man who dodged it just barely, though even just the vicinity to it seemed to have caused him discomfort.

Minato continued to fire barrage upon barrage of Light attacks, and although it hurt the beast, those gashes the attacks left were little more than nicks.

'I need to use bigger gun's to beat it.' Minato realized 'I'm sorry, Kushina and my son whom I never will get to spend time with, I just hope you'll grow up to be a great man.'

Minato formed a pyramid with his hands and said object of light formed in it "Prison of Light!" he called out and the small pyramid enlarged encompassing him and the Demon, letting the rest of the World see nothing more than a blinding bright Light.

The man of light and the shadow beast now faced off inside another dimension. It was an unnatural void, with nothing but light. This Prison was all but impossible to break from the inside, as all who were caught inside it lost the ability to know what was going on the outside, for all intents and purposes this place was another world.

"Let's see you survive this." Minato spoke confidently and began his spell "_Pure light... Bright Essence… Shining Element… None shall escape thy claim… Mind or matter, body or soul. Shine down upon us and return everything to thee…_" Even he knew that he wouldn't be able to survive his own spell. The Darkness Demon knew what he was doing was dangerous and so the beast doubled its efforts to kill him before he could finish the spell "Holocaust of Light."

Just before the large black claw hit him Minato finished the spell. A bright dome spread from Minato swallowing the demon.

The dark monster screeched in pain, as it could feel the very thing it was so weak against filling it's being, completely dissolving it, even its mind and soul was no more, completely swept away in the stream of light.

And Minato, he too was swallowed by the Light. However he didn't dissolve, he was absorbed, assimilated, losing his life and self, but still being part of the world in some way.

All outside the pyramid saw it disappear. And it was completely empty except a few bright orbs of light that soon began to fade away. The old man Sarutobi arrived at the scene of the battle. His eyes scanned the surroundings, but he couldn't see anyone. He tried sensing any kind of magical signature, but even that seemed to be inconclusive. The old man sighed, it seemed as if he would be the bringer of bad news more than once this evening, but Minato truly was a hero he had no doubt about that. He had sacrificed his life, before too many people had died. Their village was already pretty small, but that short rampage of the demon had claimed more than a hundred fifty people.

'Rest in peace Minato, you deserve it.' Hiruzen bowed his head to mourn the loss of such a great person for a second, before he had to take care of more pressing issues.

* * *

The Professor arrived at the hospital room Kushina was currently occupying. He knocked on the door and heard a weak "Come in."

There on the bed sat Kushina with her small child in her arms. Going by the small tuft of blond hair the child had taken more after it's father than mother. The old man smiled as he saw the small child playing with its mothers long red locks of hair.

"His name is Naruto." She explained without taking her eyes off the child "The Doctors told me he was the only child to be born on this day. He is very lucky."

"At least some good news this evening." Sarutobi stated and hesitated for a short moment "Kushina I'm sorry to tell you that Minato has died. He saved us all and we are forever in his debt. " he explained "My deepest condolence for your loss."

The red haired mother faltered in her action, something inside of her seemed to have broken and just now he realized that the woman before him was deathly pale, some parts of her red hair seemed to even have turned white. Although no sound came from her, tears streamed down her face hitting the blonde baby, who seemed to sense his mothers distress, beginning to cry as well.

Barely an hour had passed and the next tragedy befell the small boy. Uzumaki Kushina, had stopped breathing, the woman who had recently become a mother dead, less than an hour after having born her child.

The old man smiled wryly"…Lucky indeed." noting the irony of it all.

Immediately a doctor rushed into the room and checked the woman's pulse, before a grim expression settled on his face "Did you say anything that may have upset her, Sarutobi-sama?" the doctor inquired

"I passed on the message of her husband's demise."

The doctor sighed "I fear the stress might have been too much for her." He told the old man "During the childbirth there were some complications and she lost a lot of blood and as you know Kushina has a very rare Blood type B-Negative we simply didn't have any of that on hand. So with willpower and her high vitality she endured the birthing process, but I'm afraid when you told her Minato had died her will to live simply disappeared." The doctor wrote a death certificate "I'll be going now, we have quite a few injured to take care of." The white coated man left the room muttering "So young and already without parents."

Sarutobi felt like kicking himself. He was indirectly responsible for the fact that Naruto didn't have any parents, if he had noticed earlier what state Kushina was in he might not have told her that Minato had died now, but later. He took the crying child, from his dead mothers embrace, into his arms and cast a minor sleeping magic on the boy.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun." He apologized to the sleeping baby "I promise to take care of you as best as I can."

* * *

Eight years later. Year X774

It was a more or less peaceful day in Konoha. Everyone went about their business, chatting with each other, children were playing with each other and you could not believe even for a moment that this was the village that could have been left a ruin eight years ago were it not for the sacrifice of an incredible selfless man. There was not one single person in the village who didn't think that it was a great place to live, well all except one.

The only child to be born on that day, the son born to Minato Namikaze and Uzumaki Kushina. A blond haired boy of eight years. He was around 4'1" tall and wore a white shirt, brown shorts and a pair of blue sandals. This small boy was known as Naruto Uzumaki. And while it could have indeed be seen as lucky for him to survive on that fateful day many villagers didn't seem to think so. To them he was a child of misfortune, an omen that had foretold the arrival of the beast.

It had been public knowledge that Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze were expecting a child and the moment Kushina had gone into labour the whole village knew. That had been a mere half an hour before Elathan had attacked.

To them he was nothing, but a reminder of the people they lost, friends, family and their beloved leader and his wife.

Though on behest of Hiruzen they did not let their resentment show. They kept it to themselves and at first they kept treating him like any other boy. But then strange things happened around him, things only a trained mage could know of, but it scared the villagers.

One time a pair of boys offered to play with him and his magic had reacted to the strong joy he had felt. A nearby branch of particular large tree had broken off and fallen on the two boys, who had been hospitalized for a long time with multiple broken bones. Another time he was knocked down by a particularly mean boy. In his anger his magic had broken all the porcelain in a nearby shop. After these two and many more events the villagers grew suspicious about Naruto, going so far as to label him the source of all their misfortune.

This was why they decided to outright ignore him. Nobody was to associate with him. Nobody acknowledged the existence of such a bringer of misfortune. And this treatment had left the boy with certain scars.

He was starved for attention, desperately wanting the people to acknowledge that he existed and while the old man Sarutobi certainly was nice and spend a lot of time on him that simply was not enough, more so since the old man had duties as a village Elder to take care of.

Therefore he decided if they weren't going to give him the attention he so desperately sought voluntarily then he would force them to pay attention to him.

He began to play pranks on the villagers. Humiliating jokes and tricks that served to be an annoyance for everyone involved. It reinforced the image of someone that should not be associated with in the minds of the people. And while they wanted to punish him for his tasteless tricks, which mostly consisted of dyeing things a certain bright color and spray painting the walls of certain houses.

However since he stood under the protection of the old man Sarutobi nobody dared to raise a hand against him and at some point they just stopped to pay attention. His plan to get them to pay attention only worked half as good as Naruto imagined it would. For a short while it worked, but then they seemed to be even more adamant on denying him his acknowledgement.

That's when he decided to turn to more drastic measures. If the older villagers didn't pay attention to him even with the blonde boy to play pranks on them then perhaps he would turn to the younger generation.

It was however obvious that he couldn't prank them, because no doubt they had been told by their parents to ignore that, so he would engage them in fights.

That's when the blonde boy began to pick fights with almost anyone he came across, of course this time he couldn't expect to come out without any punishment, but he deemed that to be well worth it.

Naruto was sitting on a tree branch observing the two boys, who seemed to be engaged in a mock swordfight with two wooden sticks.

"Take this and this!" one of them said making two quick jabbing motions with his stick and the other boy let himself hit

"Oh no, you have defeated me." The second boy cried out in mock defeat and they both laughed loudly

Naruto smirked and threw a stone at one of the boys "Hey, dumb and dumber. I have seen rocks with better acting skills than you have, perhaps you should ask them for lessons?" he provoked them

"Shut up blondie, why don't you come down and we'll show you why you shouldn't mess with us." The first boy said full of confidence

"Yeah, I bet you don't even dare to do that. You are too scared!" the second boy chimed

"Why don't you come up here?" Naruto asked mockingly and answered with fake surprise "Oh yeah I remember, you are too fat you piglets."

The two boys seemed to be sufficiently enraged now and Naruto took that as an opportunity. He stood up and jumped from the branch, jumping on one of the boys using the body as a cushion.

"Thanks for bracing my fall!" the blonde grinned and stood up ignoring the groaning child beneath him. Instantly he slugged the second boy, whose reaction to his friend lying on the ground was to stare dumbfounded at him, with his right fist.

As two boys were standing again rubbing their aching bodies they glared at Naruto "You just wait, when our parents hear about this you'll pay. "

The blond child laughed "Yeah, whatever. That's what they always say." he said dismissively

With that the two boy's ran away leaving the blond boy behind, who went to find more prey, preferably someone that would actually fight back.

* * *

About a hour later in Hiruzens office.

Two boys, their faces bruised, alongside their mothers were standing before the aged man. The elder rubbed the temples of his wrinkled face to avert the headache that he feared he would get.

"Sarutobi-sama, it can't go on like this. That boy has beat up our boys and that's the sixth time that's happened in the last two weeks." The first mother shrieked "You will have to punish the boy, he'll do worse and worse if you let him continue."

"You should be aware that this situation is partly your fault to begin with." Sarutobi reminded the women of their role in alienating the blonde boy "If you had treated him just like any other we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Now leave, I will speak with Naruto about this and see to it that he reconsiders his behavior, but I advise you to do the same."

The two mothers with their children left the office. The wrinkled old man sighed wearily' I'm too old for these things.' He realized and looked out of the window 'If Jiraiya wasn't so adamant about his writing career or if Tsunade actually cared for anyone or anything besides gambling and sake one of them could have taken care of him. Taken him away and teach him all he needs to know.'

Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade had been his first pupils before he had been teaching Minato. They were probably THE most famous trio of Freelance Mages. Jiraiya had been as brave as he was perverted, his fantasy knew no bound. The first magic he had taught him was Écriture Magic to get him to mellow out and make use of that boundless fantasy, which had later drawn him to become an author.

Tsunade was quick tempered and had been one of the girls he would truly call a late bloomer. Because much to Jiraiyas charging, who had teased her about her less than womanly figure, she turned into a beautiful woman. Perhaps he was at fault that Tsunade became so addicted to gambling… She had been devastated because her father didn't survive a medical procedure which had roughly a 75 percent for survival. She had picked up medical studies along to the magic he had taught her. Incidentally she told him that she wanted to learn something which would make all those numbers not matter. She wanted something that granted her the ability to either completely succeed or fail. So he had taught her the Arc of Probability. A lost magic dealing with luck, which was why it could be just as well called Luck Magic.

Orochimaru who was easily one of the most perceptive and cunning people he had ever known, who preferred subtlety he had taught him Illusion Magic. And yet Orochimaru while one of his best students was probably one of his biggest failures. As the man had started to dabble into the Black Arts.

This created a falling out between the three. Each going their separate ways. Each travelling Fiore. Except for Orochimaru, he probably hid himself somewhere or maybe he had even founded a dark guild.

The red light of a setting sun basking the village in a bright glow. This spectacle had something wondrous about it. The old man enjoyed the view, but at the same time could feel that something eerie, unsettling was going to happen, for the red color reminded him of blood. Yes, it reminded him of blood, but also the night Orochimaru went off the deep end. Hiruzen just hoped nothing as disastrous would happen today.

* * *

Naruto wandered mindlessly through the darkening streets of Konoha. Almost every inhabitant had left the streets now, trying to avoid the darkness. Ever since the attack of Zerefs demon the people were afraid of the dark. They refused to go out in the dark, parents punishing their children when they stayed away too long, but to Naruto it was nothing more than superstition.

The streets were now completely empty' I should go home then as well.' He thought to himself, as there was little use staying out 'Nothing to do here anyways.'

That was when in the distance he spied a boy about his age. He had brown hair and two red marks on his cheeks. He could already tell that this was Kiba Inuzuka. The Inuzuka was one of the more prominent families of Konoha, having settled here long ago. They all had a deep attachment to dogs, possessing one or more canine companions, although they were no mages, but veterinaries.

And Kiba was one of the only boys who dared to fight back and was even able to put up a challenge.

It was perhaps the perfect way to end another boring day.

"Kiba, where is your mutt? Did it get lost?" he asked and mocked the boy "And here I thought you dogs had a good sense of direction, apparently I was wrong."

The brunette growled and the small white dog, Akamaru was his name, though why exactly they named him "red" Naruto didn't know, jumped out of the brunettes grey hood baring his sharp teeth in aggression.

"Shut up Naruto." Kiba said annoyed "I don't have time for you. I have to get home or mum's going to be angry."

"Ohhh wittle Kibas mummy is going to be angry? Isn't that a pity." the blonde continued to taunt the dog-friendly boy

Kiba frowned "Well at least I have a mother!" Kiba spoke angry "Stupid orphan."

The blonde glared, but let the comment slide for now since his orphan status was a sore subject for him.

"Run home dogboy or the darkness will get you." Naruto said coldly "I'm sure you and your little dog must be scared shitless right now."

"At least my mother is waiting for me at home. Unlike you whose mother abandoned him." The brunette spat in anger

"Take that back!" the blonde demanded furious at this accusation. Even if he had never known his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, he loved her since she had given her life to bring him into this world, that spoke volumes of how much she must have loved him and the only thing he had to remember her by was the tales told to him by the old man Sarutobi and a few pictures in the safety of his home.

The Inuzuka laughed cruelly having now found the blonde's weakness 'That will teach him to pick a fight with me' Kiba thought assured of his victory unaware of the consequences his taunting might bring.

"Yeah, I bet your bitch of a mother didn't want to raise someone like you, so she left you all alone."

Something welled up inside the blonde child. Anger, wrath even, an unending pit of rage that told him to hurt the brunette. He jumped towards the brunette who had not paid attention during that moment. Naruto had pinned the brown haired boy to the ground with his weight. A blue aura spread from around him, slowly it turned red and finally black.

Akamaru barked angrily as his master was in danger. He growled and clamped with his sharp but small canines down on Naruto's left hand who grimaced in pain. He grabbed the puppies throat constricting it until the dog had to release his hand. Once his hand had been freed the blonde hurled the small dog into a nearby wall, blood staining it as the motionless animal fell to the ground.

"AKAMARU!" Kiba screamed in anguish seeing his friend hurt "You monster!"

The blonde disregarded the Inuzukas insults moving on autopilot. He hit the boy in the face with his right fist, then his left. Right, left, right, left, right, left. A never ending amount of blows raining down on Kibas face.

Naruto ignored the pain in his hands from hitting punch after punch, his magic empowering him. Increasing his strength ever so slightly. After some time Naruto felt Kibas nose break under his continued assault, but he just continued until the brunette didn't move anymore.

The blonde child panted exhausted as he looked at his bloody hands, trembling as his gaze fell upon Kiba and then Akamaru.

He realized that they must have been dead 'I am a murderer!' the blonde realized and a strange feeling filled him. His eyes widened in terror. He stood up and ran, ran as far as his small legs could carry him.

He had killed a boy and a dog. This time he had gone too far, not even the old man Sarutobi could protect him. The villagers demands for retribution would be heard this time around.

He could never once again set foot into the village. He just had to flee from that place feel as far as he could. At the same time he was scared of himself, because there was a small part inside of him that enjoyed itself as he had killed the boy and his pet. A part that had welcomed the bittersweet satisfaction killing the boy in revenge gave him.

Naruto knew that at some point he had wished to hurt the villagers for his alienation, for their treatment of him, but he thought that had vanished. He thought his focus for revenge lay solely with Zeref whose creation attack eight years ago, but he was wrong.

Now he was a murderer running for his life through the vast forest around Konoha.

* * *

It had been around a day, maybe more so since he had been running. He didn't even know if there were people searching for him, but he didn't dare to find out. He was tired, hungry and thirsty. He desperately needed rest and something to give him energy. The most he had been able to find were a few nuts and berries, but the forests in this region weren't known for their fruits. They simply weren't meant to nourish a human for any prolonged amount of time, maybe a few hours at most, but that was it.

And he had no means to track down any of the animals that lived in the forests, nor was he capable of catching them anyways.

For now his only hope was that he would find a place where he could rest and find something to eat and that was when he realized that he seemed to be truly fortunate.

Not too far away he could see a two large iron statues in front of a entrance gate. He got closer to the place and realized it must have been a monastery 'Which means I'm somewhere North of Konoha.' he knew this because Sarutobi had told him of this monastery, but his speed increased, because a monastery must have had some sort of food he could eat.

However the blonde boy was starved to the point where he ignored the bad vibes he got from the place.

He walked through the bad iron gate and saw nobody, there was only silence.

"Hellooooo, anybody there?" he called out and grew more careful 'There is no way that nobody is here.'

He entered the inner temple halls and saw many corpses. Some were dried up husks without any sort of color, others looked as if they had exploded from the inside and again others had been sliced open, interestingly enough there was not a single drop of blood on the ground, safe the one that dropped from the scattered limbs and body parts, but even then Naruto knew it was by far not enough to cover for all these bodies.

He walked further and further into the building walking over the corpses of fallen monks.

There, in the sanctuary of the monastery, stood a man who had grabbed a struggling monk and was slowly draining his blood. The wrinkled shell of the monk fell to the ground as the body had been sucked dry.

That was when he got a better look at the man who probably was the one who slaughtered all these people.

He was a tall man, about 6'6" with neck long white hair and pale skin. Despite his white hair he didn't look any day over thirty or maybe at worst even forty. He wore black pants and a black shirt under an iron breast plate in the middle of which rested a red ruby. Finally a long black coat covered him with iron plating on his shoulders and arms. A simple one handed sword in a black scabbard rested at his side.

Naruto held his breath to avoid making any noise, but his stomach grumbled loudly in hunger which brought the attention of the man clad in black onto him.

Piercing amber yellow eyes stared at him carefully analyzing him.

He had just finished draining the last of these pathetic monks when a loud rumbling forced his attention on a small blonde haired boy. The boy was dirty, seemed to be exhausted and apparently had hunger, which meant he must have been on the move for quite some time. The most important thing he noted about him however was that instead of being disgusted or appalled by the sight of dead bodies and scattered limbs, he seemed to harbor some form of curiosity. You wouldn't think that this was a normal boy who just had his first experience with death.

'Yes this boy is just perfect.' The man thought with a satisfied smile

Naruto felt the stare of the man turn into something he wasn't used to be directed at him. His gaze seemed to be filled with approval, though what kind of approval he couldn't say. Maybe it even was that of a predator having found a satisfactory prey.

The man then spoke to him, a deep cultured, royal even, voice echoed through the room "What is your name, boy?" he asked him

"Naruto Uzumaki, sir."

"Very well, Naruto. You'll make a fine apprentice." The black clad man told him surprising the young boy.

Naruto had thought that his untimely demise was near, but he had been proven wrong "Apprentice?"

"Yes, I'm a mage and I sense quite a lot of magical energy in you, for someone of your age. It wouldn't be clever to let such a potential go to waste."

"You are not doing this out of the good of your heart… So why would you teach me?"

The black clad man laughed boisterously "Clever boy, but not quite accurate. I may not be motivated by my generosity, but I have deemed you interesting enough not to dismiss you as another kid with a great potential for magic." The man explained "What interests me is that you didn't shy away from these corpses you intently sought for the source of this death, you are not sick or repulsed in the slightest not even scared and that is what makes you perfect for my magic."

"What is your magic?"

"Ketsueki no Maho, Sangromancy, Blood Magic call it whatever you will." The person told the blond boy with a bloodthirsty grin

Morning of the next day

Naruto woke up and stared at the unfamiliar environment of the monastery he was in 'Where am...? Oh that's right…' he realized and pulled himself out of the bed.

Today was the day he'd begin his apprenticeship under the man who he had met yesterday. He was already pretty excited, because the first time in his life someone voluntarily paid attention to him.

He wandered through the halls and found the black clad mage already waiting for him in the courtyard. It seemed he had gotten rid of all the corpses as well, as Naruto hadn't seen a single one on his way.

"Good at least you are on time." The black clad person praised him his expression unchanging "We can begin your education then."

"Uhm…" the blonde began hesitantly "What is your name, master?"

"Sorin Markov, remember it boy."

"Of course Master Sorin." The blonde replied with eagerness evident in his voice

"Now listen well, I would not like to repeat myself. I will explain to you now what Blood Magic exactly is." Sorin began and could feel that his disciple was listening intently "Blood Magic, is the control and manipulation of said fluid. Blood Magic is at no point capable of artificially creating Blood, which is why you'll either have to use your own blood or that of other Persons or even animals. This twofold reason is why Blood Magic is considered a Dark Magic and at the same time the reason for its few practitioners."

"Why is that?" the blonde inquired incited by his curiosity, however he did not specify which part he was questioning about so Sorin answered both

"A Magic is considered a Dark one when its user can control some aspect of life only for his own benefits. Say if someone were to resurrect a Person, but the resurrected one was to be the casters slave for all eternity since this act only benefits said person, however if someone was to do the same without taking the resurrected ones free will it would be just like any other type of magic, albeit a very powerful one. The second reason why this is a forbidden type of Magic is that the practitioners or more specifically their students have a high mortality rate. Until they have underwent the change necessary for them to properly utilize Blood Magic, they should practice sparingly or not at all." The blood mage explained 'And not to forget the third reason, but he doesn't have to know about that yet.'

"What kind of change is it that I will have to undergo?"

"A physiological one. Much in the same way that a Dragon Slayer has to learn how to digest its element and turn it into Magical Energy, a Blood Mages blood needs to lose all the qualities that would make it different from the blood of other humans and that of animals. Because a Blood Mage can not only turn foreign blood into magical energy, but also store it and refill the body's own amount of blood, if that were not the case then your blood would clot very fast and you would die. Anyways that is why long ago, when this Magic was still more common, Blood Mages had often been referred to as Human Slayers and all those Fairy Tales about Vampires stem from practitioners of Blood Magic as well."

"So how do I undergo this change?" the blonde desired to know and his master had a glint in his eyes, as suddenly a large red tendril pierced his stomach

"You survive." Sorin told the blonde

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the substance, likely blood enter him. The blonde screamed in agony, collapsing unto the ground his body paralyzed with pain. He felt as if every single part of his body was set on fire from the inside, his skin felt like it might burst as he thought his own blood was forcefully ripped from his body. Soon the pain stopped and then returned a thousand times worse. His throat constricted and his stomach lurched, he felt sick to the core and suddenly vomited red blood unto the ground. The red substance however didn't stay for long on the ground, as it evaporated pretty fast. However soon the blonde could not take it anymore and lost consciousness.

Sorin looked at his disciple and was disappointed when he didn't saw him move anymore. He sighed 'A failure…' he thought dejected and then saw the slowly rising and falling of Naruto's chest 'Still breathing!' he smirked 'So no failure at all.'

The blood mage then let his apprentice rest, his lessons would continue once he woke up.

* * *

A day later

Naruto woke up once again staring at the ceiling of the monastery. Soon the previous events came rushing back to him. His eyes widened, as he checked his chest for any signs of injury, however there was no wound. Still he felt a lingering sense of anger.

"You're awake…good." Sorin commented, sounding proud

"You! You nearly killed me!" Naruto screamed in outrage

"You wanted to know how you underwent the change."

"Yeah, but I didn't want you to kill me."

"It didn't matter, because even if I had told you beforehand it likely wouldn't have changed the outcome." The black clad man responded "But you can be proud of yourself. What you just underwent is unusual. Normally Blood Mage apprentices have to get intrinsically familiar with the inner workings first and steel their bodies to withstand this dangerous procedure. To undergo it a day after becoming an apprentice is normally suicide, but I believed you could do it. I had faith that you would survive and you did."

"And what if I hadn't survived?" the blonde asked hesitantly

"Then you weren't even worth my time to begin with." Sorin stated in a flat tone and turned around" Now a final warning, it may confuse you at the moment, but never ever attempt to use any type of Slayer Magic from now on. This change you went through is a onetime thing and the only one a human body can handle, were you to attempt to undergo a second change by trying to use Slayer Magic your body, no matter how strong or powerful you are at that moment, would give up. All your organs would fail at once."

Naruto gulped with the amount of seriousness Sorin had told him this he didn't think he was joking about this matter "Yes, master."

The white haired man nodded "Now let's begin your first 'real' training session."

Sorin grabbed into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a small white rat. He gave his student the rat.

"Now your first task will be to drain this rat of its blood. Animals, especially non-magical ones are the easiest to drain."

Naruto nodded and gripped the rat with his right hand tightly eliciting a high pitched squeak from it.

The blonde stared at the rat intent on bringing out the precious red fluid inside it. Now that he thought about it, red was a beautiful color. Yes, just like his mothers hair had been. Angry, passionate red. The color of love and wrath and the same color as the blood flowing through everyone's veins.

Then he felt it the beat of the rats heart, the pulse of blood pumping through its body. There it was again that pulsating feeling, it was taunting him, telling him to grasp it, to catch it.

That was the moment Naruto could slowly feel something ripping, as if he were to forcibly take something out of a person's hand, but deeper attached, more, much more important than a simple object.

Then there it was in front of him, a small red orb floating in the air. The shriveled dead husk of the animal in his hands was dropped to the floor. Naruto was mesmerized, the red ball of life floating in front of him had a hypnotizing effect. There just was something about it that he couldn't quite explain.

He moved his hands to it and touched it, the ball did not burst upon the touch rather it's surface rippled. Soon he began to form the blood, as it stretched between his hands, flowing between his fingers like a snake. He felt so powerful controlling so little, it was intoxicating, addicting even.

Suddenly he heard clapping and was brought from his musing.

Sorin was grinning predatorily "Very good my student, but you have much to learn."

And those were the first steps of his apprenticeship under the man known as Sorin Markov. The progress he made under his sadistic and cruel Master was astounding, at least that is what he was told. During this time he had killed all sorts of animals and all for the sake of his training. Four gruesome years doing nothing, but honing his skills. If his master had left him alone, he perhaps would have lost his mind to the boredom, the isolation and the loneliness.

But during his apprenticeship the thing that most surprised him was how few 'Skills' there were for him to learn. Markov had instructed him in shape manipulation of blood, teaching him the basics and that was when he told him that he had already learned the biggest part of a Blood Mage's skill set, after all shape manipulation was only limited by his own imagination.

But then it came around the end of his apprenticeship.

* * *

Four years later. Year X778

Naruto had grown quite a bit, to be accurate eleven inches to a whole five feet. His wardrobe had changed as well, he wasn't clothed in all black as he hadn't taken after his master. Instead he wore a blue long-sleeved shirt over that a crimson vest he left unzipped. A pair of blue pants and a pair of black boots.

His master stood before him. He hadn't changed one single bit during the time he spent with him.

"Naruto you have done well following my teachings, but now it is time for you to become a Master." Sorin stated looking at the blonde boy, truly he could not have wished for a better apprentice, willing to listen to everything he said, willing to do anything he asked of him and with a progress rate that was phenomenal

"What will I have to do, Master?" the apprentice asked of his teacher, waiting patiently for the answer to his question

"It is time that you learn of the third reason why Blood Magic is considered Dark." Sorin began to explain" The rite of passage from one Blood Mage to another Blood Mage, from Master to apprentice. This directly ties into why I have never let you draw blood from another live human, because then you could have guessed what you would have to do now and might have refused."

The blond listened intently, as his Master continued.

"The Transfusion Spell has a hidden Effect. When you drain a living human of all its blood and absorb that blood into your body, you absorb every bit of knowledge that person has to offer. With this you can learn every magic that exists and become the person with the most knowledge, but I digress. When an apprentice is ready to become a master himself he is supposed to drain his master and take that knowledge for himself. That way the knowledge of the first Blood Mages is going to be preserved. This is the third reason this Magic is dark. Because death is always a requirement. Now, begin my apprentice."

Naruto was shocked his Master, whom he had studied under for four years, asked him to kill him.

The blonde took a moment to steel himself, after he had absorbed the knowledge about the fact that he had to kill his Master.

'So this is what the long hours of mental training were for.' He realized and placed his hand on his Masters chest. Concentrating on his magic, he could feel the lifeblood pulsing in the black clothed mage's body. Slowly he started ripping the blood from his Masters body, until he was nothing more than a dried up husk.

Naruto stared mesmerized at the large red orb and then he gave the mental command to absorb it. The red drops of the crimson liquid collected upon his skin, slowing seeping inside into his network of veins.

Once every last drop had vanished, he saw pictures and heard sounds that didn't belong to him. They showed events long since passed. It felt as if it was him, but at the same time like it was not. There was just too much for him to handle, century's worth of knowledge filled his head, his mind couldn't process it at all, so it did the most logical thing and shut off.

Naruto blacked out, leaving his mind to sort and filter all the knowledge seeping into him and he was sure it would take a long time before he could access every last memory.

Crimson eyes opened, staring blankly into the air. His head was pounding and it was near impossible to form a clear thought.

"I remember… I took Masters knowledge for myself." He grinned, yes he felt powerful, powerful enough to do anything he wanted to. Now he could get revenge on those fools in Konoha, he would show them. They reap what they sow. He laughed, yes, he would reap them for their life's, for their knowledge for their blood. He would take that precious crimson life blood, just like a Crimson Reaper.

Once he had recovered from having century's worth of knowledge stuffed in his mind he laid his masters body to rest and then left the empty monastery for his old 'home' Konoha.

It took him about one and a half day travelling at a pace that wouldn't leave him tired to return to the village.

As he entered the village no one paid attention to him, likely thought him to be just another traveler seeking rest before continuing his journey. In any case they didn't recognize him at all.

He noticed people chatting amicably and bartering for better prices, caught up in their own dealings.

'Time to spice things up.' The blond mage thought with a malicious grin

He turned to a small shop on the streets, with two people bartering over the prices of some pineapples.

"No way in hell are these three pineapples worth 1500 Jewels, I'll give you 900 at most."

"Now listen these pineapples are of the highest quality available here. I'm already being generous by selling them at 500 Jewels per piece."

The first person grumbled clearly dissatisfied that the shopkeeper had made no counteroffer " I'll give you 1100 Jewels."

"1400 Jewels."

That was still too expensive, he was about to make another offer when he lost control over his body. His hands wrapped around the vendors throat intent on suffocating him.

The vendor clawed at the hands around his throat "Are you insane? Killing my over some pineapples?!" he spat in anger

"I'm not doing this, I can't control my body." He said with a voice full of panic still squeezing every bit of air out of the vendors body. As the eyes of the shopkeeper began to slowly roll back into his head, he felt control return to himself for a single moment. After that his whole body convulsed for a moment, before exploding in a shower of blood and guts covering the fruit merchant from head to toe.

As he slowly realized what had happened he let out a blood curling scream that attracted quite a lot attention.

All around the marketplace people were running around like headless chicken, scared for their very lifes.

Naruto could only laugh at the fear he spread. It felt good to be able to take revenge. He continued to cast a few more Blood Slave spells watching as some more citizen exploded into blood.

Slowly he began to gather all the scattered blood in an ever growing orb. Before shooting the blood high into the air and letting it rain down upon the villagers like a hail of arrows again and again, as the more blood he spilt the more it became available to him.

Soon all that was left before him were drenched streets littered with corpses. He let a small smile graces his lips, as he turned around seeing the old man Sarutobi in front of him.

The old man's face showed weariness, Hiruzen was old and tired and now he had to deal with perhaps one of his greatest failures "Why Naruto, why?" the old man asked the blonde mage

"Why you ask old man? Isn't it obvious? I am taking my revenge for all of their misdeeds." Naruto stated enraged that the old man would dare to ask such a question

"Couldn't you have left them alone? After you killed Kiba, everyone called for your blood, but they forgot about you because you didn't turn up again, thinking you were dead they erased you out of their memories. I thought you had found someplace where you could start anew, but now you came back." Sarutobi's gaze became steely and cold "And for what? For a petty thing as revenge! Don't you know that revenge is going to leave you empty? You'll have no purpose and soon you will direct that anger against everybody."

The blond laughed scathingly "I don't care about that old man. All I want is my revenge for what this 'village' has done to me."

Sarutobi let out a tired sigh "It seems you truly have fallen, Naruto. Now it is up to me to stop you."

"Try it old man." The blond teen said challenging the old man" Blades of Blood." As soon as he finished saying those words blood rose from the ground and many razor sharp blades shot towards the old man who countered with a Light Shield spell.

Sarutobi in his prime may have been one hell of a strong mage, but he was always a better teacher. That is why all of his students had become better than him always surpassing him in everything except knowledge. There were few people who could claim to have the same amount of knowledge about anything revolving around Magic than him. It was one of the reasons he had created Archive. But all of the knowledge was worth nothing to him if he couldn't make use of it.

Naruto cursed as his attacks were blocked. If he couldn't attack the old man from the front 'Well, let's see him dodge an attack from all sides.'

He raised his hand and blood rose all around Sarutobi encircling him "Massacre of a thousand bloody Needles." Naruto called out the name of his Spell. The blood formed into thousands of tiny needles with sharp pins. The Blood Mage closed his hand and the red 'needles' shot towards the old man.

Hiruzen cursed under his breath unable to dodge the attack or block it with 'Light Shield'.

Well he was prepared to die anyways so he could go all out.

"Giants Wrath." An aura of white angry light crackled around him destroying each and every needle that tried to get close.

"Rain of Light." A large white magic circle appeared shooting dozens of light beams that all converged on Naruto's position.

The blond teenager jumped out of the way dodging, but some of the beams still grazed his body. Burning away part of his clothes and leaving angry red burn marks.

If Blood Magic had one 'flaw' then it was having little defensive capabilities. Sure he could have formed a shield out of blood, but the light would have pierced straight through it. Leaving him completely exposed.

Just as he had dodged the first barrage of light beams another homed in on his position, which he barely dodged. In just an instant he had been forced on the defense.

He truly had not expected the old man to be this strong.

As he dodged barrage after barrage he was finally cornered his back against the back wall of an alley.

The old man stared at him with cold eyes, the white aura around him giving him the image of some sort of Harbinger.

"I'm sorry Naruto, that it has come to this." Sarutobi said his voice thick with regret. He raised his hand towards the blond, the magical aura intensifying as he gathered more magical energy "Hikari no Maho: Senju Koten Taiho!" the old man bellowed out.

Five spears of pink light floated around Hiruzen, before shooting towards the blond who had a look of horror at his impending demise frozen on his face.

The spears of light hit Naruto dead on exploding, leaving the surrounding alley in wastes.

Sarutobi was breathing heavily having exerted himself to a great degree.

"Rest in peace, Naruto." Sarutobi said his voice laced with sadness, as he saw that all was left in the alley was all the blood from the people who died before 'And Naruto's blood is mixed with theirs now.'

If there had been less blood the old man likely would have noticed something amiss, but from behind him out of the blood rose the wounded figure of Naruto. His clothes ripped, cuts and burn marks all over his body 'Lucky that Sanguine Pool saved me.'

"My Time isn't over yet, old man." Naruto responded laughing an evil laugh "But you might prove useful to me, or at least all that is stuck inside your head."

Naruto placed his hand on Hiruzens back "Transfusion." As the old man was drained of his blood in nearly an instant, all he had time to do was widen his eyes in shock.

Again more knowledge filled Naruto's head. This time more organized. Compared to the flood of information draining his master had provided him with the knowledge of Sarutobi was a stream. Well controlled, trickling into his head.

He saw what had transpired the night of his birth and felt even more hate and anger towards this village. For being ungrateful little bastards, his father having given his life for them, for being incompetent morons, not being able to safe his mother.

And then…then he was hollow.

* * *

He had eradicated Konoha. Turned the once lively little village into a ghost town.

He had his revenge, but why did he feel so hollow. White hot anger surged up inside him. What was he supposed to do now?!

"Tell me Old Man?!" he screamed at the drained corpse of the grandfatherly old man "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?"

And then he heard the voice of Sarutobi 'Elathan…Zeref created…' he heard the old man's voice, it was close as if he was directly talking to him, before turning into a ghostly echo 'Zeref…Zeref…Zeref…'

The voice of Hiruzen echoed in the Blood Mages head.

Naruto then realized it"Zeref?ZEREF! I shall kill Zeref. Yes, if it wasn't for his Demon…" the blond laughed darkly in the darkening street "I shall find and kill Zeref! And if by chance he is already dead, why then I might just have to resurrect him just so I can kill him again!"

The laughing slowly subsided leaving a creepy chuckle that filled the empty village, as the blond was on his way.

Days later as the first travelling merchants arrived in Konoha their screams could be heard for miles. The Magic Council employees that followed had to get the information about what transpired from very traumatized merchants.

All these people had been muttering was "Blood…so much blood. Painted crimson."

Some others however even "It was the Shinigami. The god of death reaped them."

Thus this became the first reported incident of the "Shinku Karite or the Crimson Reaper."

As the Magic Council of Era had little information handing our warnings or bounties was useless, for nobody knew the face behind this massacre. But one thing they knew, the world would change.

* * *

Only spells that have been actively used during the story will be mentioned and explained here in this corner. Spells and Magics that were just mentioned wont be explained as not to spoil the further story and to keep you having your own thoughts and guesses until the revelation.

**Spell Grimoire**

Light Shield, Giants Wrath, Light Rain are Spells native to the Fairy Tail Universe and can be looked up on the fairy tail wiki.

**Senju Koten Taiho **– High A to S Rank offensive Light Magic (Borrowed from the Bleach Universe)

The Caster creates multiple Spears of pink light. Once these spears hit their intended target they explode, leaving the person suffering from this attack dead or severely injured.

**One with the Light** – S-Rank Supplementary Light Magic

User: Minato Namikaze

Effect: The User enters a State in which he can absorb the Energy from the Light surrounding him, as he turns into a being of pure Light. In this state the caster has a near inexhaustible amount of magical energies. However he is only able to use Light Magic, but with multiple times their strength. The downside to this technique is that any kind of Darkness or Shadow attack deals multiple times of their damage against the user. In fact even if the Caster is in the vicinity of such an attack he will feel some of the effects of these kind of attacks.

**Prison of Light **– S-Rank Supplementary Light Magic

User: Minato Namikaze

Effect: Imprisons one or more targets into a separate Dimension. Targets inside the Dimension loose knowledge of the outside and those inside loose knowledge of those outside the Prison. If the Prison isn't canceled or destroyed it will repair any damage it suffered by absorbing nearby light.

**Holocaust of Light **– Supreme Offense Light Magic

User: Minato Namikaze

Effect: The user lets light in its purest form sweep over the land. The maximum Area of Effect is 300 feet. Beings of pure Light are assimilated by this Technique, any other beings body and soul will be destroyed by this attack. All are equally effected by this attack, except the caster. Since this attack had not been fully finished by the time of its use Minato had been assimilated.

**Transfusion** – A to S Rank Offensive/Supplementary Blood Magic, Lost Magic, Black Magic

The Caster drains the targets body of its blood leaving a mummified body. The Caster can choose to use the blood immediately or turn it into magic energy.

Additionally every memory/knowledge of a live human drained by this Spell is transferred to the Caster.

**Blades of Blood** – E to A Rank Offensive Blood Magic, Lost Magic, Black Magic

Blood is formed to take the form of Kniveblades which then are thrown at the Casters target.

**Massacre of a thousand bloody Needles** – A Rank Offensive Blood Magic, Lost Magic, Black Magic

The Caster shapes a lot of blood into Needles encircling his intended target. Those hit by this spell look similar to those tortured in an Iron Maiden.

**Sanguine Pool** – S Rank Defensive Blood Magic, Lost Magic, Black Magic

One of the only defensive techniques of a Blood Mage. The Caster turns 15 percent of his bodies total blood into magic power to facilitate this Spell. Should the Mages reserves be insufficient the body's own Magic is used to fill the difference needed. The body of the Caster turns into a pool of blood to dodge any incoming attack. Temperature based attacks, Fire, Ice still have an effect on the Caster. Movement is possible in this form, which can be held for between two and three seconds. Multiple uses in the same Fight is ill advised, as the Drain becomes too strong and the likelihood of the enemy being surprised sinks. Furthermore Sanguine Pool can only be used once every Minute as the stress on the body, especially the organs, from turning into Blood and back again becomes too great.

**Blood Slave** – S Rank Supplementary Blood Magic, Lost Magic, Black Magic

Using his control over blood the Caster of this Spell can control a person's actions to his will. The weaker the controlled person the longer this spell will hold, up to a maximum of ten seconds. Controlling more than one person at a time is ill advised but possible, as it will divide the time a single person can be controlled by the number of overall people that can be controlled. Victims of this ability that do not have any magic in them at all violently implode upon release of this Spell. A sufficiently powerful mage will shrug this spell off without knowing it was affecting him.


	2. Clash of scarlet and crimson Part: One

This is Chapter two of my rewrite. I hope you'll enjoy it. And please review. I'll read every last one of them and I'll select some to respond to them at the beginning of every new chapter.

Silvanatri: Glad you enjoyed it. Also if you tell me which scenes you thought weren't explained I will explain to you whatever you didn't understand about them or what seemed to be not made to clear to you.

cruel vamp: I am glad that you liked it. So far you are the only one who has noticed or at least commented on Sorins cameo appearance.

Lootryx: That's the reason it seemed like such a dramatic change. Without having all the background it must've looked as if Naruto's personality changed 180 degrees. That is one of the reasons why I decided to rewrite this story. In any case if it remains exactly as it is now remains to be seen.

nxkris: Yes. Erza will still defeat him. That is a crucial point that wont change.

dbzsotrum9, TeninChwang and forbiddenfruitunloved (who both reviewed on the AN of the first story) I have noted your particular distate for a polyamorous relationship inside this fiction. And I do understand it, but for now my decision stands to have both Erza and Meredy involved and with very high certainty a third character that may come as a surprise to everyone. Beyond that it's open if I add more. At the very least I feel confident to make that much work, if I do change my mind because I am unable to make it work out the way I wanted I will notify everyone. Also to dbzsotrum9 and forbiddenfruitunloved. I wont add a dead love interest anymore. Some of the reason will likely be revealed by reading this chapter. The other reason is that the only period of time this pretty much would be possible would be between this and the last chapter and while I wont deny that Naruto is coming/came into puberty and does begin to notice girls during that time, at the same time he is much too focused on his revenge to consciously chase a love interest.

* * *

Year X780

It had been two years since he turned Konoha into a ghost town. Killing every last person that had been inside Konoha that day. Since then he had been wandering Fiore, beginning far in the west before following the coast eastward, in search of knowledge on Zeref, devouring the few mages that he came across to get to their knowledge and magic of course but that was a mere side benefit. The most he seemed to get out of those people he had devoured and made a part of him was the general history of Zeref, things you could come to know by visiting any common library, few if any did have specialized knowledge about the Black Mage.

Furthermore he had found out that he had been called the 'Crimson Reaper', a name he very much liked, a S-Ranked Criminal that is supposed to be brought to justice, according to the order of the Magic Council. Whereas some of the less magic savvy people thought he was a vampire for his tendency to leave husks, drained of their blood in his wake.

'Fools, all of them.' He thought to himself in disdain of such stupid people.

Naruto moved one of his hands through his shoulderlength blonde hair having grown it to that length. His height too had increased a bit to five inch and three feet. In his search for Zeref's whereabouts he had not advanced at all. As it stood now Zeref seemed to be dead, as all history books would claim, which was why he was working on a methode of ressurecting a dead person.

However such a thing seemed to be even more impossible than procuring any knowledge on Zeref in the first place.

Currently he had taken residence in Narcissus a rather large port town on the coast of Fiore just south of Era where the national Magic Council had its seat.

Since he had taken steps to ensure no one knew his face, which was by killing all those that recognized him or that witnissed him killing anybody, nobody here knew that he was a wanted criminal that had slaughtered a whole village and many more.

Though as he spent more and more time in Narcissus he came to hate the people here too and if the town wasn't as big as it was he would have done more than entertain himself with the thought of slaughtering them all, because the people here were just like the name of their town suggested narcissistic.

Not just in the 'I am the most beautiful person on earth' sense but in the 'Our town is so important and we are all better than you' as well. Beauty really mattered in this town. It was just good of him that he made them think he was a noble from Crocus, else they probably would have treated him like dirt too.

The city itself was split up into four areas. In the middle of the city and making up the entire east section was the market district. In it's center was a large plaza with a huge fountain in the middle. North of the marketplace was the residential district. The place where one could find the majority of people living, the Golden Ship inn and the church. South of the plaza was the Port district. That was the place all the ships anchored and travelers no matter if they arrived by ship or train would see first. And the fourth area laid in the west. To the west of the market lived the rich and influential and you could find the mayor's office in that direction.

Also Narcissus buildings were color coded. The most important buildings were pristine white. The buildings of merchants were gold colored. The houses in the port district were either blue or green. And most buildings in the residential area were red.

'Clothes do make the man afterall.' Naruto thought, because he looked quite regal in his outfit, which consisted of red trousers with white stripes, a exquisite blue kneelength robe, that was white inside and had lots of gold colored ornaments. His feets meanwhile were covered in a pair of fine leather boots. It was a surprise that he managed to wear an outfit with so little of the color red in it because quite frankly he was obsessed with that color. He would freely admit that much.

Officially he resided in the Golden Ship, a rather luxurious inn sitting just north of the market district of the town though he had connected a well concealed entrance from his hidden laboratory in the sewers of the city to the wine cellar of the inn, so as to not arouse suspicion of being seen by anyone on the Nightwatch.

Another reason he choose a port town was that the salty sea-air would conceal any strange smelling fumes that could come out of the sewers, as a sideeffect of mixing liquids and substances, at worst people would think somebody was selling rotten fish.

But back to his problem of ressurrecting a dead person. Currently he was experimenting if his Blood Magic could be of any use in that. You never knew until you tried afterall.

Normally the answer would be a definite no. The blood of a Blood Mage was not capable of being of service to anyone else but him or herself, hence why it was a Black Magic. If his pure,untempered blood ever entered the bloodstream of another person or an animal they would probably feel either excrutiating pain or collapse of anemia soon after ingesting it, since he hadn't tried it so far he had little certainty. For now he had been picking up any stray cat, dog and rat he came across and experimented on them.

As of now the concotion he gave them caused them to experience enhanced levels of aggression and a great desire for blood. Their blood cell production and the pace at which the blood was pumped through the body seemed to increase as well. This increased their strength and speed allowing more high powered and high speed moves. In the aftermath they died a horrible death. Blood starts to fill their eyes turning the sclera blood red, before the blood bursts out of their eye sockets giving the impression of the animals crying blood.

Then blood starts pouring out of their ears and finally they are coughing it up as well, until they collapse dead on the ground. It was likely a stress reaction. Their organs probably ruptured from the high blood pressure at which the blood was pumped through their veins and arteries. Thus the cause of death was likely organ failure.

Currently though all he had done was add powdered mandrake root to his blood. Though failure was part of every great success. For now he had to somehow stabilize the concotion so that the user wouldn't die. Maybe the enhanced blood cell production could be used in some way.

He passed the many shopping citizen of the town who went after their everyday business. Finally he came upon his inn, the Golden Ship. The façade of the inn was completely white with a small ornate golden ship which hung over the entrance.

He walked towards the receptionist, a rather slimy man in his mid thirties. Eite was his name. He was just a a bit taller than him, standing five feet and seven inches tall. He had short black hair that was slicked back, looking like it was completely coated in grease. He wore a white button up shirt and a black pair of pants. The shirt was slightly undone giving a slight view of a chest covered in large amount of hair. Around his neck hung a thick gold necklace and on his right hand were a few plain gold rings.

"Good day, Naruto-sama." Eite greeted with a false smile, his voice just as oily as it always was"Finished your errands for today already?"

"Of course, Eite. Would I have returned, if I didn't?" Naruto returned adopting a haughty and arrogant persona.

"Forgive me Naruto-sama. It was stupid of me to question you." He replied servile bowing slightly with his upper body"May I ask what I can do for you, Naruto-sama?"

"Eite, during my errands I came across more of those nasty animals." Here Naruto sneered in fake disdain"You know the ones with the red eyes, that are aggressive and die pretty fast."

"Yes,yes I am truly sorry Naruto-sama. It seems some sort of epidemy has struck those animals. But our best doctors don't know what it is. So long as they don't know what is plaguing them we can't do anything." The greasy haired receptionist tried to calm the blond haired teenager down

"That doesn't satisfy me Eite. If my father in Crocus hears about this, yours and all of Narcissus profit is going to sink drastically. I want it taken care of and soon at that. I don't care if you have to hire a Guild to do it, but I want to have it taken care of." Naruto stressed the importance of the subject to the greasy haired man"I am going to my room now and as always do not disturb me or the consequences will be grave."

"Of course, Naruto-sama. I will instantly send a missive to the Mayor who will hire the best guild available." Eite reassured the blond 'noble' with a fake smile"And as always you wont be disturbed."

'Arrogant little brat…' the Innkeeper thought angrily while his slimy subservient smile stayed on his face'If he didn't pay so well I would show him how to pay proper respect to his betters. Little daddies boy probably can't even lift a weapon.'

'Perhaps I over-acted a bit. If they do send a competent mage he could sense my magic, which would mean I would have to eliminate them and then that is going to cost me my cover…' The blonde was a bit distressed that he made a grave mistake but was confident he could work around it, if it came to it.

He walked the flight of stairs upward, leaving the innkeeper seething as he wrote a letter to the mayor of Narcissus.

He then called for a page to deliver the letter.

The mayor's office could be found to the west of the market district. On the outside it was pristine white like any other important building of the town. Inside however it was decorated in a way that seemed fit for royalty. Eveywhere hung red and gold colored banners with the narcissus flower, the eblem of the town, embroided in white. In the foyer of the building stood a pair of golden narcissus flower statues.

The mayor obviously had not shied away from any kind of expense to make this the most pompous building in the town.

The page walked the stairs up until he arrived at the secretary's office, beyond which laid the mayor's office.

He turned the door knob and entered the office. The secretary was a woman that many men outside of Narcissus would deem to be a beauty. She had fair skin, shoulderlength brown hair tied into a ponytail, emerald green eyes and a fairly large bust. However she also had to wear a pair of glasses.

Which in the eyes of the people of Narcissus detracted from a persons beauty, as it no longer was 'natural'. As a matter of fact if you had any kind of imperfection in other words a birth mark,glasses,scars anything of the sort your social standing even among the lowest of the working class in Narcissus took a big hit.

"Hello, Bria. I've got to deliver a message from Eite." The page informed the secretary

"Sorry, Theo, but Mayor Preence is pretty busy at the moment. You'll have to wait." Bria responded stopping her work for a moment"Just take a seat he should be done soon."

The page, Theo, took a seat and sighed in dismay, Eite would no doubt chew him out for returning too late.

About ten minutes later frantic shouting could be heard from the mayor's office.

"But…but Mayor Preence. I am sure some sort of demon has placed a cursed upon our wonderful city. If… If you would just…increase the gracious donations you are making to our church I am sure we could hire an expert exorcist to take care of the problem." A rather high voice said to the mayor

"No, means NO! I wont waste any more of our towns well earned money on some spiritual mumbo-jumbo." The deep voice of the mayor had a high pitch to it in his agitation"You should be happy that I decide to donate money at all to your little club. AND NOW OUT!" Preence screamed that last part rather loudly.

The door opened and a dejected looking man left the room. He was clothed in an expensive purple robe. He was the priest that took care of the church that could be found in the residential district, not all that far from the Golden Ship.

"Are any more people going to bother me today, Bria?" the mayor asked his scretary.

Preence was a small rotund man with balding brown hair. He was only about 5 feet tall and he probably weighed more than twice any person of his height did. He wore a grey suit with white stripes. The cord of a golden pocketwatch could be seen hanging out of one of his pockets. Small beads of sweat had formed upon his forehead which he hastily wiped away with a silken handkerchief. The only reason someone like him was Mayor in a city that valued beauty was because of the money he had. He had bribed everyone else that had tried to get elected and as the only person left in the end he became mayor by default.

"Yes, sir. Theo, the young page from the Golden Ship, has a message for you from Eite." Bria explained curtly

"Ah, Theo, my boy. How are you?" Preence asked with a large fake smile that betrayed his annoyance. Whenever Eite sent a message it didn't bode well for him.

'That guy is always demanding things.' Preence thought grimly

"I am fine thank you, sir." Theo handed the letter to Preence "Well, I've got to be going Mayor Preence. I've still got a lot of work to do at the Golden Ship." Theo bowed a little so as to not anger the mayor for taking a quick leave.

"Of course, my boy." The Mayor nodded absentmindedly as the page left the building.

The small man opened the letter and began reading it, his face taking on an interesting shade of red before it turned to purple. At first he crumbled the piece of paper in his hand before tearing it to little shreds in anger.

"Bria…" his teeth were gritted in rage "I want you to send a job request to a Mage Guild. They are to take care of the animal problem we are having, make it an extermination Job with a bonus for finding out the cause."

"Yes,sir." The secretery obliged with her employers demands and wrote a job request. Including some information, before sending it to the guild of Fairy Tail, as when it came to destroying things they were probably the best at it.

* * *

A few days later. Magnolia Town, Fairy Tail Guild Hall.

A young fifteen year old teenage girl with scarlet hair and brown eyes entered the Guild Hall.

She wore a white shirt with a scarlet cravat, a white kneelength skirt, a blue pantyhose and a pair of brown leather shoes. If her torso and arms weren't covered in plate armor one would have been able to see the growing pair of breasts beneath her clothes. Two leatherstripes fastened a sheath, which held a sword, to her attire. A blue fairy-tail tattoo could have been seen on the middle of her left arm if it wasn't covered by the long sleeves of her white shirt.

She was Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail's newest S-Rank Mage, having passed the S-Rank Trial that had been held mere days ago on Tenrou Island, besting her rival Mirajane to the position.

"Congratulations on passing Erza." The words echoed through the guild hall being spoken by most of her comerades

"Good job, kiddo." Gildarts congratulated her with a big grin and slammed his flat hand, perhaps a bit too hard, unto her back as she nearly keeled over.

"Thank you, Gildarts." She brought out with the last bit of her breath and saw him leaving with a job request in hand.

"You were just lucky." A white haired girl with blue eyes commented. She was Mirajane Strauss oldest of the Take Over siblings and closest to the title of S-Rank Mage. She was also Erza's most fierce rival. She wore a short purple tank-top, purple hotpants held up by a white belt with a silver clasp and a pair of knee high boots. Two bangs framed her face and her long hair was done in a ponytail held together by a purple ribbon.

"Don't be mean to Erza, Onee-chan." Lisanna, the youngest of the Take-over Siblings, pleaded knowing that another fight between them could break out any moment.

Lisanna had short white hair and blue eyes like her sister. She wore a big pink shirt that was many sizes too big for her and red slippers.

The older girl huffed in anger "Next time I am going to be an S-Ranked Mage too."

The scarlet haired girl smirked "I'll be waiting for you, Mira."

The white haired mage scowled and walked away.

"Don't be angry with Mira-nee. I think she is happy that you got promoted too." Lisanna explained

"It's okay, Lisanna. I understand."

The young girl smiled and followed her sister.

Erza walked upstairs to the second floor of the Guild Hall, the part of the guild that was reserved for S-Ranked Mages. At the moment that included three people in Fairy Tail. Laxus Dreyar, the Master's grandson, Gildarts Clive, the strongest Mage, excluding the Master, in the guild, and her the guild's newest S-Ranked Mage.

This was the first time she would go alone on an S-Rank Quest. She had accompanied Gildarts once or twice to get some experience as to what these S-Rank Quests were like. She surveyed the jobs posted on the board until her gaze fell upon one particular job.

Request: Extermination in Narcissus

The Mayor of Narcissus offers 6 million Jewels for the Mage that can exterminate all infected animals and a bonus of 2 million if the source of the unnatural infection can be found.

This job sounded relatively easy for a S-Rank Mission, but it would serve as a good first solo S-Rank Mission.

She ripped the mission from the board and made her way towards Magnolia's trainstation, having everything she needed in her Requip space.

Just as she was about to exit the Guild Hall a small old man with grey hair and a grey mustrache spoke to her. He wore an orange jacket over a white shirt with the Fairy Tail emblem, an orange pair of shorts, brown shoes and an orange and blue striped jester hat. That was the master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar.

"Already leaving for your first job, Erza?" he asked her with a smile

"Yes, Master." She affirmed "I mustn't shirk my duties just because I got promoted to S-Rank."

"Which job did you decide to take?"

"The extermination in Narcissus."

"Alright have fun and take care of yourself." He wished her farewell as she left the guild for the trainstation, she would probably arrive in the morning or afternoon of the next day.

Suddenly all color drained from the Masters face'Narcissus… wasn't that the general area the Crimson Reaper had been reported to be in?' the small man gulped hoping that no harm would befall his 'child'

* * *

The next Day

Erza woke up and stretched her stiff body having not slept well on the hard furniture of the train. Her eyes adapting to the bright light as she pulled the sun shield back up. The train ride had been quite unspectacular. Nothing of note happened, her thoughts and the newest issue of the Sorcerers Magazin were all she had to occupy herself with.

"Next stop, Narcissus. I repeat. Next stop, Narcissus." The voice of the conducter filled the wagons, as he spoke over the intercom "All passengers with their destination as Narcissus, this is your stop."

Slowly the train came to a grinding halt, the gears squeaking loudly before the train stopped fully.

The scarlet haired mage got up from her seat and left the train.

"I should probably talk to the mayor to get all the information I need."

Unfortunately she didn't know where the mayor's office was, so she needed to ask someone for directions, which would prove more difficult than Erza would have thought.

"Excuse me?" she stopped a young black haired woman with blue eyes"Could you tell me how to get to the mayor's office?"

The woman took a single glance at Erza and scoffed, before ignoring her and continuing on her way.

"That was rude." The red haired girl muttered, before she stopped the next person. A slightly older man in his late fourties. He had brown hair green eyes and a well trimmed beard. This person ignored her as well. This irritated her a little bit.

For the next half an hour she tried to get people to respond to her, without success and quite frankly she was pretty pissed of. Angry as she was she grabbed the next person she saw at the scruff of his neck, glaring at him"Tell me how to get to the mayor's office." She growled at the blond haired boy, who looked like he was just about her age.

"Could you please let…" Naruto tried to finish his sentence when he saw the scarlet hair of the person, that had grabbed him. It belonged to a teenage girl that must have been about his age.

'S-she is beautiful.' Naruto thought. In his mind that red hair of hers was absolutely perfect. Naruto wanted nothing more than to touch her hair, caress those silken scarlet strands. He barely supressed the urge to just reach out and grab some of it. He had to have this girl. However he realized another thing as well, she had a sizeable portion of magic power inside as well'She must be the mage that fool of a mayor hired.'

Naruto was torn, if it came to it he didn't think he would be able to kill her but he had to if he wished to preserve his secret.

"JUST ANSWER MY QUESTION!" the girl nearly screamed his face off.

"I-if you'd just put me down." He promised her "I will answer any question you have. I swear"

She gave him a scrutinizing stare "Fine." She told him and dropped him on the ground.

Naruto exhaled in relief and dusted himself off"You want to get to the mayor's office, right?"

She nodded in response.

"You are currently in the south-eastern part of the city. You will have to follow the street west until you come to the port district. Once you arrive at a tavern called Salty Bilgerat follow the street north until you arrive at the central marketplace, it is marked by a large fountain in the middle of the plaza. From then just continue following the road west until you come across the first pristine white building you see. Take the stairs to the first floor where you will find the secretary's office, beyond that you will find the office of the mayor."

"Thank you…"

"Oh sorry, I am Naruto Uzumaki." He smiled and held his hand out"It's nice to meet you…"

"Erza Scarlet. I am pleased to make your acquaintance Naruto-san." She shook his hand "You know this city of yours is pretty rude. You are probably the fiftieth person I asked and the first to answer me how to get to the mayor's office."

"Actually I am not from here. I am from the capital."

"Crocus?" she raised an eyebrow in surprise

"Yes, Crocus. My father is allowing me to stay here on vacation." He lied, not that Erza knew that"But I get your problem with the people here. As the name of the city implies they are pretty narcissistic. With the way you look they probably thought you weren't worth their time."

"Not worth their time?" she inquired sceptically

"Yes, if you do not look like a noble or are a merchant people here wont talk to an outsider. They consider it to be beneath them." Naruto let out an exasperate sigh "It does get quite tiring."

"I can imagine." The red haired mage noted with a grim expression and then blushed"I am sorry for the way I treated you but I was just so…."

"Angry?" he cut her off and after seeing her nod he chuckled mirthfully"Yes, I imagine you must have been quite frustrated but don't worry about it. You didn't harm me in the least. By the way that scarlet color of your hair is just beautiful." Naruto complimented her with a warm smile, which caused a light blush to form on her cheeks

"T-t-thank you, Naruto-san." She stammered lightly embarassed as she was unused to such compliments

"You may drop the formalties. Just call me, Naruto." He put his best charming smile on, causing her to just nod in response "Well if you are planning to stay a bit longer here there are three places you can rent a room at. Down in the port district at the 'Salty Bilgerat' and the 'Groggy Seadog'. They don't charge much, just about 700 Jewels a day mainly because it is used by sailors and fishermen." The blonde explained "If you however want to live with a bit more flair in the residential area, north of the marketplace you will find the 'Golden Ship', that is where I am staying at the moment. They charge quite a bit more namely 15000 Jewels a day. If you aren't too occupied come visit me, I can show you the city and maybe you'll allow me to treat you to dinner…" Well the only reason he was able to pay the large fee was because he took the liberty of taking the money his victims had on their person.

Erza had forced her blush down "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer. As I believe this job is going to take more than a few days." She said

"Job? What kind of job brings you here?" the blonde asked innocently, feigning ignorance

She smiled proudly "I am a mage from Fairy Tail. I have been hired to take care of some infected animals and maybe find out what is causing it as well."

Naruto faked awe "Wow, you must be pretty strong then. I came across some of these beasts and they are pretty nasty."

Erza nodded "Yeah, I have just been promoted to S-Rank." She wasn't usually one for bragging except when it came to contesting with Mirajane but for some reason she felt the need to impress Naruto

'Red hair,beautiful and strong…' He was sure there were few girls and woman who combined those traits quite like her. His desire to have her be his grew exponentially.

"That's amazing. Well I've got some shopping to do. I wish you a good day." He smiled and bid her farewell "Good luck with your appointment."

"Thank you, Naruto." She turned around and followed the description the blond had given her.

* * *

Narcissus, Mayor's Office

Erza had arrived at the place just as Naruto had described. She entered the secretary's office.

"Hello, I am here because of the job request." She stated and the brown haired woman looked up from her work. She seemed to have been checking different expenditures and incomes by the look of it.

"Ah welcome, Miss…"

"Erza Scarlet."

"The mayor has been expecting you Miss Scarlet."

Erza nodded and opened the door that led to the mayor, not hearing the"Awefully young." Bria had muttered

"Welcome." Preence stated in a boisterous voice"I am the mayor of this city, Ignatius Preence. I welcome you to our wonderful city, Miss Mage."

"My name is Erza Scarlet." The red haired girl introduced herself once again, a hint of annoyance in her voice

"Ah yes Miss Scarlet." He eyed her with a sceptic gaze, a false smile on his lips"Excuse me, if I am not well informed, but aren't you a bit young to take this job?"

A slight feeling of anger had welled up inside Preence feeling betrayed that he had been sent a small girl instead of an experienced mage. He was silenced quickly though, as Erza had drawn her sword in a flash holding it to the mayor's throat.

"You'd do well not to underestimate a Fairy Tail mage, Mister Preence." She said in a dangerous voice

The balding man began to sweat profusely "Yes, I am sorry that I questioned you, Miss Scarlet." He apologized

The rookie S-Rank mage resheathed her sword again"Alright, I would like to know more about the job I am supposed to carry out."

The mayor, using his handkerchief, wiped his sweat away "Well, it began about a week or so ago. Mostly stray animals had gone missing so we didn't think much of it, after all who cares for some dirty little strays." The small fat man sneered in disgust"But then just a day later some of them reappeared. They had red eyes and were very, very vicious. They bit and attacked anyone that came close to them, the worst thing about it is that they are much stronger than a normal animal of their size. One dog came close to biting a dock workers leg off in one bite. The strange thing is those animals don't make it past half an hour or maybe an hour at most. They die horribly afterwards. Blood seeps out of their eyes, ears and mouth and then they just fall over dead…" the mayor sat down in his large chair" The few people that have been bitten are feverish and just like the animals very aggressive, but stable. Every last bite victim has recovered after one or two days of rest. And our best doctors haven't been able to figure out what's plaguing the animals. They are saying that it isn't even an infection and somebody is turning them into those bloodthirsty animals, but that couldn't be true right?" the rotund man seemed to be visibly distressed"I mean the Nightwatch didn't find anyone roaming the streets at night, so how could this be?"

'This definitely isn't normal.' Erza contemplated the information she had been given"Well your doctors, might be right with their assumption. Someone could be using Forbidden Magic on these animals to turn them into bloodthirsty beasts." However Erza had never heard of a magic capable of turning good-natured animals into frenzied beasts.

"Well then let me change the mission. I am willing to pay you ten million Jewels if you find out who the culprit is and stop him." The mayor promised her

"Mayor Preence, I will stop the culprit and return peace to your city." Erza swore on her honor as a mage that she wouldn't leave this mission unfinished.

She left the mayor's office and walked down to the port district, the sun had already begun to set, casting an orange glow over the city. She entered the Salty Bilgerat, which was filled with many drunken sailors, walking to the person she presumed was the keeper of the tavern. He was a large bulky man with long messy brown hair and a full beard. He was currently polishing a dirty glass.

"Excuse me?" she asked

"I am Gnoin welcome ta the Salty Bilgerat."he said, finally looking up to her"What can I do fer ya young lass?" he asked gruffly

"I would like to rent a room." Erza requested

"Aye, I bet ye would like to do that." He said and shook his head"No can do though, sorry lass. All rooms are taken."

"Oh…I am sorry for bothering you then." She turned around and would see if she could get a room at the Groggy Seadog

"It's alright lass." He said setting the glass he had been polishing down and took a new, dirty one"If ye intend ter go to the Groggy Seadog, don't bother. My brother Gloin has rented out all rooms too. It's fer the grand market that is going to be held this week. If ya still want ta get the room try the Golden Ship up in the residential district."

'Well, I hope this job is not going to take all too long. I just have 50000 Jewels with me. Any more than three days and I am broke.' She mused'If I didn't need to find the culprit, I would just camp outside the city, but since it's this large I don't think I can afford to.'

She then made her way north to the residential district, quickly arriving at the grand inn 'Golden Ship'.

She entered the buidling and saw the black haired receptionist and already got a bad vibe from him.

"Welcome in the Golden Ship inn. How can I be of service, Miss?" he asked her with his usual fake smile

She could feel the man's lecherous eyes on her body, but decided to ignore that"I would like to rent a room."

"Yes, of course." He nodded and continued to keep his false smile up "How long do you intent to stay?"

"I don't know, that depends how long I need to conclude my job in this city."

"Hmmm…" he seemed to contemplate her situation"With the grand market coming up this week, this might be bad for business you know? You could be taking up room I would usually rent out to a merchant. That would cost me a lot of money…"Eite put up a large grin "But for 70000 Jewels upfront I'll be able to give you a room."

Erza blanched. She wouldn't be able to pay the amount of money the innkeeper demanded, which would be a major setback for her mission. She was about to leave the inn when she heard a familiar voice.

"You sicken me, Eite. This is no way to treat an esteemed guest." Naruto spoke full of disdain descending the stairs

"B-but Naruto-sama, you have to understand I just can't give her the room under any other circumstances." He pleaded

'On one hand it would make keeping my cover much easier if she couldn't take residence in the city but…' Naruto knew he'd regret this but he just had to have Erza Scarlet, he desired her, she had to be his.

The blonde sighed audible, the other two occupants in the room thought it was because he was fed up with the greedy attitude of Eite. If they could read minds they would have known that it instead was because of a conflict of interests inside his mind "I will pay the fee for her." He said before adding "And if I see or hear of you ripping off another person, Eite… I'll make sure to have you kicked out of this place and see to it that you will never again will be able to set foot into a respectable business."

The greasy haired man almost seemed to grovel in front of him"Of course, Naruto-sama. Certainly, Naruto-sama. I wouldn't dream of doing anything like this."

Eite took a ornate silver key with the number ten and handed it to her. He was about to call a page to show Erza to her room but Naruto stopped him.

"That wont be needed Eite, I'll show her to her room, seeing as it is opposite of mine."

The man bowed in subservience"Certainly, Naruto-sama." He said and the two people walked upstairs. Once they were out of sight Eite slammed his hand on the couner"That damnable well paying brat." He growled out in anger "Making me act inferior to this outsider… I hate him, I hate him so much…"

Once upstairs Naruto pointed at a door with the number ten"That is your room."

"You didn't need to pay for me, I could have just as well camped outside the city." She stated feeling guilty of using a persons good well

"Don't worry about that, that's what friends are for, right?" he asked with a smile

"Friends?"

"Yes, I would like to be friends…" he fell silent his expression growing sad before continuing"if you don't want to that is fine as well."

She shook her head"No, I would like that."

"That's great." He responded with a smile"And I am sorry about Eite he knows that with the Salty Bilgerat and Groggy Seadog fully booked he can charge whatever he wants too."

"Yeah, I got the feeling that he wasn't all that happy to have you pay for me."

The blonde chuckled"Yeah, he doesn't like me all that well." He told her "He considers himself superior to everyone, especially outsiders so the fact that he has to pay me respect really gets to him. Eite really isn't the most pleasant guy to be around."

The red haired girl nodded in agreement.

"In any case I better get some sleep and you'd better do the same. I am sure you're quite exhausted after travelling all the way."

"Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning, Naruto." Erza said and inserted the key into the lock and turned it, opening the door to her room which she entered right away.

"Till tomorrow." He said bidding her farewell, as the door closed behind him and he heard the door being locked.

He turned around and sneaked away never entering his room with the number nine, instead he snuck into the wine cellar opened the concealed pathway and made his way towards his hidden laboratory, where he would be experimenting a few more hours until he went into his room and slept as well.

* * *

Well that was Chapter number two of my rewrite.

**Useful Information:** Mandrake root causes delirium and hallucinations. In high doses, it can even send the user into a coma.

Interestingly enough I didn't know that when I choose it to be the first test ingredient during Naruto's experiment.

Also for those interested in converting Fairy Tail currency into real Money. According to Fairy Tail wiki 100 Jewels are aproximately One US Dollar.

**Spell Grimoir**

No Magic has been cast during this chapter. No addition to the Grimoir.


	3. Clash of Scarlet and Crimson Final

I present you with the third chapter of my story. The first thing to address as always are the reviews.

TeninChwang: Thank you for your long and detailed review. If you do not like stories which have the protagonists start out as dark or evil, then simply DO NOT READ THEM. I personally don't care what it is exactly that makes you unable to enjoy those stories and honestly it doesn't matter either way, because the easiest way is to simply avoid them, period.

Coming to your other point. That Naruto in this story is just another Sasuke is utter bullshit. Just because they have a defining feature, namely a desire for revenge doesn't make them the same. For example let us say two people like vanilla ice-cream. Does that make them the same in regard to anything else, but this one feature of their personality? No, it doesn't. Therefore your whole comparison between Sasuke and Naruto falls apart because it merely focuses on the aspect of revenge the two have in common, completely ignoring the different premises.

Sasuke in cannon had everything. A loving wonderful family, even if they decided to shit on the peace of Konoha with their coup, talent as a shinobi, an outstanding bloodline. And then suddenly that family of his is torn away, at the whim of the village elders. Then there is the fact that he completely ignored the many people willing to help his get over his problems, but he is too absorbed into his selfishness and believe that they couldn't understand him anyways. And once he finds out the truth about the massacre he wants to punish the whole village for the mistakes of the elders.

Then we have cannon Naruto who starts out having nothing. No parents, no outstanding skill beyond playing pranks and who earns despite the mistrust of the village friends and eventually manages to get accepted and in his world every single person has the capability to become a Shinobi. Thus compared to the general populace, Shinobi who have intricate understanding of Sealing arts and trust in their Hokage, a large amount people are mostly indifferent to Naruto in canon, who has only to deal with the hate of the common non-shinobi folk and even then much of that is limited as well because of the law of not being allowed to talk about the kyuubi.

However Naruto in the Fairy Tail world suffers from the same problem canon Naruto does. He has NO FAMILY. There is truly no one to take care of him and once the village as a whole begins to distrust him, because they have no knowledge about magic simply attribute bad thing happening to Naruto, causing an unwillingness to associate with him and unlike canon this time there is no law to prevent the parents from telling them what they think is the truth, cue the younger generation getting manipulated.

Funny how you want to have Naruto manipulated while the reverse might hold similar results as well.

So in this case you got a little eight year old emotionally stunted boy, who had no one to teach him 'right' from 'wrong', with little to no worldly experience and he accidentally kills a little boy and finds out 'Hey it felt good venting my anger'. And because he didn't have anyone to help him develop a conscience the only natural thing to think for him is 'If I vent my anger on everyone because they were mean to me I will feel really great.' after he gets over the initial shock of having killed someone. That is something the mind of a child is capable of thinking off, wouldn't you say, especially without anyone to supervise and guide him. Then he gets the power to do just that and he does it, but then in some kind of irony winds up feeling hollow, leading him to latch onto the next target of revenge in this case Zeref, I'll admit that is something Sasuke did too in this case shifting from Itachi to the Village of Konoha, but as it goes with revenge it will hold true for just about anyone that makes it their life goal.

And collective scorn of a single person from 'the village' as a single entity so to speak is very much possible. The collective of a group is stupid, the dynamics and anonymity of a group increases the readiness for emotionally charged actions, namely violence, rioting and so forth. And it's not all that uncommon for there to be social outcast. For example, presume you have a little village, say about four to five thousand people, and the government suddenly makes an announcement that someone who was charged with rape or any such similar thing, maybe even falsely accused, but they weren't able to prove anything, that person is supposed to live inside that village from now on. Do you think everyone is going to treat him like a normal human being? No, they are going to be more wary of him, tell their children to stay away. Overall they are being mistrustful. And maybe after a few years they start to accept him and change their opinion, but for Naruto who in his case was attributed to have been the cause of bad luck, two boys landing in the hospital after associating with him, doesn't have as much luck. Even though they were willing to accept Naruto in the beginning, because of Minato being his father, after all the incidents they just didn't want to risk anything, coupled with a group mentally and the general much less knowledge of magic, for example the persons on Galuna Island (Natsu's first S-Rank Mission) thought a sufficiently strong mage is able to destroy the moon, considering this such a thing as collective 'ostracizing' of a single person is very viable.

So in fact even the premise of Naruto's and Sasuke's revenge is different, Naruto is a little child who truly doesn't know any better and wants to punish a collective for their collective mistakes. Sasuke as a well-educated teenager goes against his brother's love for the village and decides to punish a collective for the mistakes of a few, in this case the elders, so he can make everyone feel the anguish of losing their family.

So whereas Naruto's revenge is merely self-satisfaction and childish. Sasuke's is well planned and in his mind perfect justice.

TL;DR Bottom-line is, Naruto in this story is not the same as canon Sasuke, beyond their desire for revenge and even then their motivation is a whole different one. I'd be happy if you refrained from making such a brainless accusation without clearly thinking about what you have been saying.

I apologize for this wall of text, but I can't let something sit that is just grossly wrong.

forbiddenfruitunloved That is correct. Absorbing someone with Blood Magic does not permanently increase a person's magic reserves nor does it increase strength, speed, agility or intelligence. All that Naruto is provided with is the knowledge that person holds and the blood. Nothing else. And knowledge does not equal intelligence.

* * *

The next day dawned and Erza woke up in a soft bed, momentarily forgetting where she was. Only after a short while her sleep addled brain realized that she was in the Golden Ship inn, in Narcissus. Her reason for being here, catching the culprit that changed the cities docile populace of animals into vicious beasts. For now she had no clue where to begin her investigation or who could be behind it.

She wasn't even a hundred percent sure the change was caused by magic, as she had never heard of a magic being capable of such a phenomenon.

As for now the only person that seemed remotely suspicious was Eite, the owner of the inn. That man just rubbed her in the wrong way, but even then her grounds for accusing him were feeble at most.

Maybe Naruto would have an idea as to who could be behind this, he seemed to know more about this city than she did.

Thinking back on the meeting with the blond she somehow felt drawn to him. He reminded her somehow of Jellal before he had been possessed, charismatic, intelligent and protective of his friends. There was no doubt he would have fit perfectly into Fairy Tail, if Zeref had not befuddled his mind.

She finally pulled herself together as she managed to leave the comfort of her soft bed.

She placed her Heart Kreuz pyjamas back into her requip space. Her pyjamas consisted of a lilac shirt and pants riddled with scarlet Heart Kreuz emblems, which was a variation of a cross. A cross with forked tips curving around both ways, like a ram's horns, with a heart on one of its arms.

She slung a towel over her shoulders exposing her naked body to the fresh morning air, her scarlet hair going slightly past her shoulder blades.

She would probably grow her hair even longer though. She liked her hair long, after having to keep it short during her time as a slave in the R-System.

She walked into the spacious shower and let the water run down her body. Once she was finished she dried herself off and requipped her usual attire.

Erza left her room and locked it. She walked up to the door with the number nine and knocked on it, however she received no response. Knocking once more nobody answered again. If Erza hated one thing it was when people didn't answer her fast. So she knocked once again, this time nearly hard enough to knock the door out of its hinges.

Suddenly she heard a muffled "Yes, yes. I'm coming" from beyond the door and heard the key turning in its lock.

The door opened and in front of her stood a half dressed Naruto, yawning.

"Erza, what are you doing at my door at this time of the morning?" he asked sleepily

"It's just six thirty in the morning that's when I always wake up." She responded obliviously

"I'm sorry, Erza but normal people require a bit more sleep." The blond said 'Especially if they just got about three hours sleep at maximum.'

"Then why are you half-dressed if you didn't plan to get up?"

"Because I didn't want to answer the door naked."

"Would that have been bad?" she asked, as she had bathed often enough with Natsu and Grey not to be bothered by nudity. Now that she inspected him closer all he did wear were indeed a crimson pair of pants. His chest or rather his whole upper body showed signs of training, not to the same extent as Elfman or even Grey and Natsu but Naruto was far from being a usual wimpy token noble.

"It is just not common practice for most people." Naruto stated still half asleep "So what is it that you want from me?"

"I would like to take you up on that offer of yesterday." She said "Could you please show me around the city and tell me what you know?"

Naruto had been presented by two choices go with Erza and spend the day with her or go back to sleep.

The answer was very simple "Alright, let me get dressed first." he requested of her and closed the door, before returning fully clothed soon after. He rubbed his eyes in tiredness "Let's get going then."

He locked his door as well, before following Erza downstairs as she went ahead. They met once more outside the building.

"Well if you want to see the city let us begin here in the residential district." Naruto stated feeling like a city guide "Well up here is only one thing left to show you, the Church. You already know the Golden Ship, obviously and all other houses belong to the residents of this city. Follow me then."

The pair walked west until they came across a curve. Following the curve they were lead further north into the city, until they stood infron of a large pompous church. Two large towers sprouted into the air connected by the main buidling. The towers ended in sharp points, as did the top of the main building. The church itself was decorated with many colored glass windows.

As they stood in front of it they saw someone who obviously was part of the church, a man in purple robes unlocked the large wodden front door to the building, however he also had a white and gold cloak thrown over his robes. He was very tall, greyish hair which was neatly trimmed into a bowlcut. On the bridge of his nose sat a pair of spectacles.

"Welcome, children, to the Church of Zentopia!" he greeted them spreading his arms in a sign of greeting"I am Cardinal Reginald charged with taking care of this church. Priest Bosco has been relieved of this duty so that this holy place may flourish once again."

"Greetings, Cardinal." The scarlet haired mage said greeting the man with a smile

"Have you come to repent my children?" Reginald asked

"No, we are not." Naruto responded curtly"I am just showing my friend the city, since she just arrived yesterday."

"That is unfortunate." His voice took on a decidedly disappointed edge"I wish you a good day." Reginald entered the church and left the two alone.

"Why did you say that? I wanted to know more." Erza said a tad angry

"Because I don't like him." The blonde said

Had he truly felt jealous in that instance?

He got rid of that thought "Well, let's go I want to show you more of the city." The blond said with a smile and grabbed Erza's hand pulling her along.

He led her to the western district, leading her through the narrow streets and showed her the opera house.

The opera house was pristine white, as custome of the important buildings in this town. If they had went inside they would have seen all gold or at least golden colored furniture. This was the place the high society of Narcissus used to entertain themselves.

Next on the list was the port district, where he showed her the docks and the many merchant ships that were anchored for the grand market that begun today.

"Say, Naruto what is the grand market?" Erza inquired

"Well, grand market is once a year and it's where much of Narcissus wealth is from. So once a year important merchants from all over Fiore and even some from Caelum, who arrive by ship, trade and sell. Fine and exquisite clothes, spices, food, rare and exotic pets whatever else you can think off. Of course that means the three inns are having a lot to do, which is why they are pretty much booked out at this time of the year, hence why Eite tried to rip you off yesterday. Of course the city or rather the mayore charges some improved 'trading taxes' to make use of this occurrence too but the overall income the merchants make here is still enough that it doesn't bother them any." The blond explained

"If this place is so prosperous why has no Guild settled here it seems like the perfect place?"

"As far as I know that goes back to Zerefs day and age. Back then during one of his rampages he destroyed this city completely. This caused some festering distrust towards mages. Well they don't have any problem with anyone staying temporary but they would probably go ballistic if they tried to settle permanently. That's why you wont find a single shop in this town that sells magic items, wanting nothing to with it."

Erza 'ah-ed' having understood the reasoning for the absence of a mage guild in this city.

"Come on I still have to show you the repair dock where the shipwrights are working tirelessly to repair any ship."

And indeed she saw how a crew of people repaired damaged ships. Be It because of wear and tear, storm, pirate attacks or whatever. They repaired it all, quite quick even.

Then Naruto showed her the last district, everything that laid to the east of the plaza. The many merchant shops that offered all kind of goods, the haggling going on between trading merchants.

All in all the streets were bustling with more people than even during Magnolias busiest hours.

"I just thought of something." The blond said suddenly "You could ask Grigory. He is one of the doctors of this town. I'll show you the way."

The blond led her to a slightly dingy house in the eastern district. Its cold color was largely faded and the color was even flaking off at some points.

Naruto knocked on the door and a white haired man opened the door. He was old, his hair going bald and he had a small white goatee. A pair of glasses framed his face and he was leaning on a plain brown walking stick.

"Yes?" he asked his voice a bit hoarse

"Doctor Grigory, could we talk to you?" Naruto asked carefully knowing that the old man was very grumpy most of the time.

"If you have to." He responded gruffly walking back into the house leaving the door open

Erza thought that this man might even be older than the Master, however maybe her Master was just much younger than he seemed.

As they entered the house Erza could smell a very strong desinfectant, the vaporized alcohol almost permeated the air. Erza almost believed she was in a hospital. Scattered across the house were many books and research papers, on some workbench, she thought, she was even able to see a dissected animal.

"Thank you, for taking the time to talk with us Doctor." Erza thanked the old man politely

"Whatever." The old man responded annoyed "Now, tell me what you brats want from me?"

"I would like to know more about these animals." The scarlet haired mage said pointing at the dissected dog

"Ah, those beasts." Grigory stroked his goatee positively giddy, as if Erza had asked the right question "They are so very interesting." He admitted "Those incompetent fools at the hospital believe it's some kind of infection, but they are very wrong. What has happened to these animals must've obviously been drug induced."

"Drug induced?" Erza asked surprised, she hadn't thought of that, while Naruto remained silent listening to the old man, intent to know how much he had revealed.

"Why, yes. In the blood stream I came across two substances that are nothing like any bacteria or virus. One is mandrake root. Ingested it can cause hallucinations and delirium. In the confused state it's very easy to explain the heightened agression the animals are experiencing. The other substance seems to have reacted to the mandrake root or rather the mandrake root has reacted to that substance. I can't say for certain. That combination has an added effect of increasing blood pressure, increasing strength and speed of the affected animals, however the organs aren't able to handle that pressure. The cause of death in all cases has been organ failure. I've also found an increased number of blood cells, the production must have increased too. Well in any case I'm glad someone is stirring those stuck up, arrogant bastards up." Grigory said that last part with great satisfaction a smirk creeping on his face

'The man is good. To find out that I used Mandrake root in the potion.' The blond thought, Erza however glared at the old man

"It wasn't you who drugged those animals?" she asked carefully a certain edge to her voice, causing the old doctor to laugh out loud

"Hahahahaha…." He couldn't contain himself "I haven't laughed like that in a long time. No, young miss. I am not the culprit would I have told you what I found out if I was? Besides the real culprit is a miserable amateur, who knows nothing of drug creation. His second substance is certainly a mystery and has very unpredictable effects, but that's not enough to make up for his lack of knowledge."

Naruto balled his hand to a fist gripping 'How dare that old coot insult me.'

The blond knew he wasn't great, but that didn't give this old fool the right to insult him. He still had a lot of pride. 'Why if Erza wasn't here, I'd show him what I think of his opinion.'

"Why do you say that he is an amateur?" Erza asked interested

"If he wanted to create a Berserker Draft he should make sure that his test subjects don't die. I mean it's easy, adding a bit Hawthorn, Wood Betony or Yarrow to the compound to reduce the high blood pressure." The old man explained, causing Naruto to grin inwardly, having just told him how to improve his concotion, not that, that was the intended effect, but he could move from there. I mean the increased blood cell production seemed useful, maybe for when he was low on blood and didn't have someone to drain.

"But all that aside. Yes, I admit I have a motive. Do you know what it means walking around with these!?" he pointed at his glasses clearly enraged now to talk about this subject "Nobody respects me. I get treated with disdain eveywhere I go and barely anyone comes to me to get treated even though I am much better than any of those other fools. Igor, Akinov, Mathilda, Victor, Sasha and Theresa. All six were once my students but soon they thought they were better than me, left me, ignored me and now they are managing this towns hospital. However they might as well be quacks, having never formally finished their studentship under me. Yes, I hate them and most people here. I can't even move, because I don't have enough money. I would love for someone to kill them, however I am not the culprit." Grigory picked up a nearby book and began to read, signalizing the two to leave the doctor's house.

Once outside the house Naruto looked up into the orange sky, they had spent nearly the whole day together as he had shown her the city and helped her with her mission.

He saw the contemplative look on Erza's face "Well, I'm going ahead back to the inn. I'm pretty tired."

"Mhhhm…" Erza didn't even respond properly lost in her thoughts as she was, before she snapped out of it "I'm going to stay out here. Maybe I can find something the Nightwatch missed."

"Alright. See you tomorrow morning, Erza." He smiled at her to which she responded by smiling as well

Naruto quickly returned to the inn, making himself known to Eite, before sneaking into the wine cellar. He pressed a stone on the wall, that seemed out of place because it was round instead of rectangular, but without closer inspecting the wall nobody could notice this detail. The wall swung forward revealing a small room with a hole in the ground a large ladder leading down into the sewers. He walked inside the room and turned a small iron casing on the wall to his right which closed the door that led to the cellar.

He would have time to test the improvements to the concotion as the doctor had suggested.

He followed the way to his secret laboratory. He stopped in front of a wooden door and opened it, revealing his small laboratory. The place he was using must've been a shelter from dragon attacks , during the Dragon Civil War.

When he found it, it was filled with dust and cobwebs, a single brittle wooden desk filling the room.

'The room must have been abadoned for at least a hundred years.' He thought

The room was now filled with cages, which held the animals he had picked up, multiple shelves with plants,liquids,beakers and a large cauldron filled with his potion.

He went through the shelves until he found one of the ingredients to add. Naruto picked up the yarrow and cut it into small piece before taking a beaker full of the liquid and added a bit of the yarrow. The rich red color the concotion changed until it was faded. Like a faded blood stain on white clothes.

Suddenly the liquid inside began to sizzle, before it rapidly vanished turning into pink fume.

A slightly coppery smell hung now in the air together with something he couldn't quite define. Suddenly the encaged animals began to growl and bleaked their sharp white fangs. They thrashed around in their cages, denting the metal ever so slightly. After about half an hour they collapsed exhausted in their cages. When he checked them for vitalsigns he could tell they were still alive.

"A success, but what happened with the liquid…?" the blond mused

'There are two possibilities why it evaporated.' Naruto thought to himself and decided to test the theories.

For the first experiment he took more of the unfinished draft and then placed the beaker on a table, before adding the yarrow. The concotion evaporated once again.

The second experiment he conducted was the same as the first but this time he placed the beaker in a large ice casing letting it cool down and then added the Yarrow. The experiment had the same results as the first.

"Which means the temperature is not the factor, but the air."

It seemed that the new concotion had a critical flaw, once it came into contact with the air it would evaporate. This meant the draft could not be prepared in advance, but had to be freshly made.

Naruto yawned audible"I think I'll continue tomorrow…maybe today I'll get some sleep."

The blond mage made his way back, turned the lever but the wall didn't swing forward. "W-what?" he exclaimed surprised "Why isn't this working?"

He turned the lever a few more times but again no response.

* * *

A few hours earlier

"Where shall we place the wine caskets?" A rather plain looking merchant asked

"Just put it in front of the wall in the back." Eite replied

"Okay, guys you heard him." The merchant called and gradually more people walked into the cellar placing the large caskets filled with wine in front of the stone wall.

Present time

* * *

Naruto grumbled clearly dissatisfied that he now had to take the long way out. Which in other way meant he had to navigate through the sewers until he came out at a place offside of the docks.

'I'll have to be careful though, Nightwatch and Erza are roaming the streets.' Naruto draped himself in a crimson cloak, to protect his identity.

He moved through the complex sewersystem until he came across his secondary exit, a small hole that ended at the docks.

He looked up to the ledge that would lead him back on steady ground. He fired an earth first and grappled himself upwards, flinging himself onto the streets.

"Hey, you! Stop!" a Nightwatch screamed and Naruto inwardly cursed, he couldn't kill him especially in his signature way, that would pretty quickly call the Runeknights down to this place, especially with how close Era was.

Quickly making his way to the Nightwatch he slammed his palm into the mans gut"Sleep well."

"Help!" the man screamed before the sleep magic took effect and put him into a deep sleep

Erza who was nearby rushed towards the scene. Under the dark sky of the newmoon all she could see was an individual cloaked in black as he stood over the downed body of someone from the Nightwatch.

"Halt!" she ordered and drew her sword to add force to that order but the cloaked figure ignored that demand.

He jumped up and thrust his palm out, reminiscent of her Masters light magic he rained light upon her.

She quickly requipped her Light Empress armor. Her whole body was covered in a white reflective armor. In her hand she now held a sword with a mirrors edge.

The light impacted on her armor without dealing damage, all Erza felt was the slight discomfort of the impact.

"Flash Sword." The blade shone brightly before a crescent shaped blade shot towards the cloaked assailant.

The culprit jumped over her attack, which impacted into a house behind him demolishing it. Her opponent jumped on top of a nearby house using the rooftops to traverse the city.

Erza requipped her Flight Armor, a sparesly clothed armor covered in cheetah chequered fur. Additionally Erza wore a pair of furred cheetah ears and a large bushy cheetah tail. In her hand were two short swords with elaborate handguards in the shape of roses.

The speed boost of the armor helped her keep up with her target. She was now head to head with him as they raced across the rooftops.

Beneath the hooded cloak she saw his lips move as suddenly a brown magic circle shown in the air and a slippery slope of mud threatened to take her footing, if she didn't jump over it. Another magic circle appeared and a stone hand flew towards her. Airborn as she was all she could do was cross her swords and block the attack.

She successfully deflected the stone fist, but her target was now quite a bit in front of her, when he suddenly turned around.

Suddenly a bright flash illuminated the area and blinded her completely when she once again could see, the culprit had vanished.

Erza cursed herself that she had been played like a fool like this. She punshed the roof of the house she stood on. Now that she noticed it, she was somewhere in the western district, maybe the culprit was the mayor?

'No, his whole body was different from Preence… but maybe if the mayor hired him…' she knew that such a thing could be possible, but right now she had nothing to link the animals and the mayor together. For now she was once again quite clueless.

For now she would go to sleep, she doubted the culprit would show himself twice on the same night and maybe tomorrow she would find out some more.

* * *

The next day Erza woke Naruto early in the morning, just like she had done the day before. While the blond fought his drowsiness the red head told him all about yesterday evenings events.

"So, you found the culprit but he got away?" he recounted faking interest

She nodded"Yes." She balled her fist "He got away because I was so carelees."

Naruto placed his hands on her shoulder "Calm down. Let's search the city for more clues, okay?" she nodded "And maybe tonight you are going to see him again."

"You are right, Naruto." She said determined "I shouldn't let myself get down just because of this. I'm sure that I am going to catch him."

So the two scoured the streets of Narcissus once more, finding out nothing, as Naruto subtly steered Erza away from finding out everything.

In the evening Erza ones again joined the Nightwatch on their patrolling, while Naruto, who had removed the caskets of wine from blocking the entrance, could freely use his secret entrance once more.

And that is how the following few days went by as well. Naruto woke up considerably more tired than the day before. He woke up very early thanks to Erza, spend the afternoon with her, which consisted of distracting her from doing her job. And each day he fell a little more in love with her. While he experimented in the evening, until late into the night.

However five days after Erza had arrived, Naruto reminded her about the other part of his offer.

"Erza, do you remember, when we first met, I offered you something else besides showing you the city?" he asked her

"You offered to take me out for dinner, but why are you bringing this up?" she inquired

"I would like to take you out this evening, how about it?" he smiled brightly at her

She smiled back at him"Sure, I need something to take this frustrating mission off my mind anyway." She had enjoyed the last few days very much, especially with Naruto's company, however she didn't get any closer to completing her job.

"Alright, I'll pick you up here at eight." He promised

As evening came Naruto picked her up. Neither of them had changed their particular outfit knowing that the other wouldn't mind, the way they dressed. Naruto took her to a nice restaurant in the market district.

They had a wonderful dinner under the waxing crescent moon.

"The dinner was wonderful so far. Thank you for treating me, Naruto."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it but there is still the matter of dessert." The waitress who had brought them their dinner this evening also brought them their desserts, a pair of soufflé.

Erza's mouth opened in surprise as her eyes began to sparkle in delight "How did you know?" she absolutely loved soufflé, one of her guilty pleasures aside from cheesecakes.

"A good guess." He responded truthfully, as he really had guessed, not knowing that she loved soufflés this much "Let's enjoy our dessert, shall we?"

She nodded eagerly and tasted a bit from the soufflé and almost melted delight "The taste is just heavenly." She swooned

Once they were finished Naruto cleared his throat to get Erza's attention.

"Erza, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen." He told her completely serious, causing the scarlet haired mage to look at him shocked"And…and I love you." At least he thought that, what he felt was love. He had never truly experienced such an emotion, at least consciously. He vaguely remembered the comforting and warm touch of his mother just from when he was born, but beyond that he could not say for certain that what he felt was love.

But he loved seeing Erza, spending time with her, didn't want to see her sad, want her to be happy, to touch her, feel her touch, be at her site, lie in eachothers embrace.

It was a new and conflicting emotion for him, but he liked the way it made him feel. Like he wasn't alone anymore, but at the same time it somehow conflicted with his goal. Did he really need to exact revenge, if not then what should he live for? What if she rejected him? What would happen then?

There were so many questions and uncertainties that for the first time in his life Naruto couldn't think of anything, because he honestly didn't know what he should think about.

Emotions were a fickle thing, you could know all about them. Know what caused them, how they influenced you and yet when you were hit by them you were left speechless.

Erza didn't respond. She did not expect this, to be told by him that he loved her. Certainly he was a good friend and she loved spending time with him but love? Did she feel such a thing for him, did she really know what love was? At one point she thought she would eventually come to love Jellal, but after the escape from the Tower of Heaven she just didn't know anymore. She had felt betrayed in her friendship, had felt lonely after having to leave her friends, Wally, Sho, Simon and Milliana.

How would Naruto react if he knew that she had been a slave? Would he drive her away, forsake her friendship?

There were so many thoughts that plagued Erza that she couldn't answer or maybe she forgot to answer, she wasn't quite sure.

Receiving no answer at all made Naruto feel as if a thousand daggers were stabbed into his heart.

He looked down at the ground in shame, feeling confused, betrayed, lonely yet some part of him was oddly happy?

Naruto called the waitress and paid. The two went back to the Golden Ship, the oddly suffocating atmosphere following them, clinging to them like some kind of unpleasant odor.

As they stood opposite of eachother in the hallway in front of their respective rooms the silence was bone-crushing.

Naruto was about to turn around when Erza spoke up.

"Before I can answer what you told me, I want you to know about my past." Erza looked decidedly sad at having to mention her past "Four years ago, I escaped from something known as the Tower of Heaven or R-System. I along with many hundreds of people had been enslaved there, all for one purpose…finish the tower. We had been kept there by some cult that worshipped Zeref. The purpose of that tower was the resurrection of Zeref."

Inside him a fire, unlike anything he ever felt before, ignited. Zeref the bane of life, the one that had denied him of a loving family, had hurt the girl he loved as well. Was this some sort of twisted trick? Was fate such a cruel mistress? But even if it was as such, did that really matter? Zeref was dead after all, his target for revenge dead and the only surefire option at reviving that person had hurt the person he loved. Could he, in that case, truly make use of this Tower of Heaven, if it still existed or should he pursue his own way?

He was shaken out of his thoughts, as Erza continued.

"Back then we had tried to escape, but were caught and Jellal was punished in my stead. As they tortured him something must've happened because when we revolted and broke out, he was changed. He didn't want to go, he wanted to resurecct Zeref. In the end as I fled I had to leave all of my friends behind."

This time Erza adopted a downtrodden look accepting rejection "I understand if you don't want to be friends with a filthy slave."

Instead of being rejected she was hugged close to his body "Stupid girl." He chided her "I told you I loved you. That is not going to change things."

His blue eyes looked into her brown. He leaned in and captured her lips in a chaste kiss. It had been a great feeling. Much better even than killing Kiba six years ago or even killing the villagers two years ago.

He broke the kiss, but Erza instantly grabbed his cheeks and pressed her lips back against his.

It was a wonderful feeling for her. She felt like she was able to forget all her worries and all the sadness in the world. She wanted to go further and prodded with her tongue at his lip, begging for entrance to which he obliged. Sneaking her tongue into his mouth their tongues danced and swirled around eachother.

As they broke apart they looked at eachothers face, both lightly flushed.

"Want to do more?" Erza whispered coyly into the blonde's ear, to which he could only nod dumbly

She opened the door to her room. And requipped her clothes, leaving her naked in front of her lover.

Without any sense of modesty she showed him her growing pair of breasts and just above clitoris was a small patch of scarlet pubic hair. Erza had never possessed much modesty having no need for such a concept during slavery as it would lead to uneccessary punishments. And during her time with Fairy Tail she never cared much for such a concept either. She had frequently showered with Natsu and Grey and not to forget she one time even stumbled upon Masters orange Book. A perverted book written by someone called Jiraiya. And whereas most woman would have went into a frenzy upon seeing or reading such a book, she found it intriguing, interesting even.

Naruto thought Erza looked absolutely stunning, like a goddess. He believed he could get drunk simply on seeing her form. In a flash he took his clothes off as well and presented her bare body to her, his penis already well errect.

He pressed his lips on hers once more,pushing her down on the soft bed, before slowly trailing kisses down her body. Going past her collarbone, before he softly kissed the spot between her two breasts. His right hand grasped her right breast and kneaded it, while his mouth captured her left nipple. He lightly sucked and bit on it causing the scarlet haired girl to moan pleasurably.

"Mmmm, Naruto."

He stopped sucking her nipple and blew over the wet nub, slowly making the nipple errect.

He then switched his mouth to her other breast and tweaked and rubbed the errect nipple between his thumb and indexfinger.

"Sooo gooood…" she said breathlessly as Naruto continued paying attention to her beautiful bosom

So that the blonde didn't feel left out she grasped his errect penis and began lightly stroking it making him groan in pleasure.

They continued their mutual ministration for a short while, when Naruto looked up into Erza's eyes, asking the silent question.

Erza nodded in affirmative and shivered as she felt his stiff organ prod at her entrance.

Slowly his hard penis entered her, breaking through her maidenhood. For a brief instant she felt a surge of pain, before it subsided and she gave him the signal to move. His movements inside her were slow and tender, each thrust making her feel better than the last.

Soon she could no longer contain her voice as she started moaning loudly overshadowing the lewd noises their entwined genitals produced.

"G-go faster…" she asked of him in between her sounds of pleasure

Naruto complied with her wishes and moved faster inside her love mound.

However they knew they couldn't last for long anymore. It was a miracle they had already lasted this long. Their sexual stamina still woefully undertrained to handle prolonged lovemaking.

They both were panting and groaning and Naruto soon lost his focus has he began moving more erratic"I-I'm…going to…cum." He said in between pants

"Do it outside." Erza managed to bring out, not wanting to get pregnant

The blonde pulled out of her and began stroking his cock to a finish, spraying his load onto her stomach.

So as to not leave Erza feeling unsatisfied he inserted two fingers into her drenched vagina pumping them in and out until she screamed in delight, her inner walls clamping down on the intruding body parts.

Naruto and Erza laid besides eachother. The blond had pulled the red head into his embrace and just now he wished he could stop time, to preserve this moment into all eternity. Alas such a thing was impossible.

He kissed her once more"Thank you for this night, Erza."

She shook her head"No, I have to thank you. I don't think I could have ever trusted someone again but you…you showed me differently."

The blonde smiled at her"Sleep well." He said and watched her fall asleep in his arms, fully content.

That moment the blond had an epiphany. The crucial component into turning his berserk draught into a rejuvenating one.

He wrote a quick note which he left lying besides Erza, dressed himself again and kissed her in goodbye, before rushing into his secret laboratory.

* * *

In the morning Erza woke up revelling in the afterglow of yesterday nights activities. However she quickly noticed that Naruto wasn't in bed with her. All she found was a note.

I have some errands to run today and I didn't want to wake you.

I hope you slept well.

Love, Naruto.

She smiled at his antics.

'Come to think of it the only times he wasn't at my side was when he had to do something. I wonder what it is he has to do? I never asked him.' She mused when she too had an epiphany there was one person who could tell he more about her mission 'Grigory. I'm sure he knows a bit more than he lets on.'

She took a quick shower, requipped her clothes and rushed towards the eastern district. Once she was in front of the old doctors house, she knocked again.

The same old bespectacled man opened the door "You again?" he asked raising an eyebrow "And this time your boyfriend isn't with you… Don't tell me…you think you are pregnant?"

In light of the evenings activities Erza blushed scarlet "No!" she vehemently denied the accusation "I wanted to ask you more about your motive or rather if you know who else could have one."

"Hmmm…."The old man seemed to be lost in his musing for a short time "If you truly wish to find the culprit, maybe I can help you somewhat. There are two other people who have a major motive. First is Eite, the owner of the Golden Ship, you'd think his greed is greater than his lust for power but he thinks himself better than everyone. I wouldn't put it past him to create some kind of berserk animal army to take the city over or maybe it was even a mistake and he actually wants to drug the city with his wine, the Berserk Draft only an unfortunate sideproduct. The second person is the mayor. Everyone knows he has bribed his way into the post and I'm pretty sure he is embezzling tax money of the city as well, though the only one who might be able to prove that is Bria, his secretary but right now he doesn't have enough to bribe every candidate again. So maybe infecting these animals is an attempt at creating panic and then in the hour of need he comes and presents a wonder remedy, to get his support among the people back. That's all I can tell you."

"Thank you, Doctor." Erza bowed in appreciation and rushes with full speed towards the mayors office

Inside the office she was greeted by the secretary.

"Miss Scarlet." Bria greeted "I'm sorry, the mayor isn't here right now. If you want I can relay a message once he is back."

"No, that wont be needed. I actually wanted to talk to you."

"Me?" the glasses wearing secretary looked surprised and Erza told her about her lead on the case

"I'm sorry. I can't allow you to do that, Miss Scarlet." She said and Erza understood that "However, I'm going on a break right now and I wont lock the office. So someone looking in the mayors third drawer from the top might find his accountbook with his personal expenses in it without me being able to stop that person."

"Thanks, Bria." The red head smiled

"What do you thank me for? I did not give you anything of value." The brown haired woman responded and left the office.

Erza opened the mayors office door, went to his desk and rummaged through the drawer finding the offending piece of evidence.

However there weren't any spendings on a dark mage or dark guild.

'The mayor is innocent…at least in this case.' She thought noticing how much tax money he used for his own purposes 'That just leaves one option. Eite, the inn owner!'

She rushed back towards the Golden Ship, seemingly the source of everything.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" Eite asked with false politeness, before he realized it was Erza "Oh it's you. What do you want? Do you know how much money you cost me?" he seethed in anger

"Shut up, vile cur. Tell me what you are hiding in your cellar?" she demanded angrily

"Wine, what else? Leprachauns?" the black haired man asked sarcastically

"Show me!" the scarlet mage demanded drawing her sword

Easily cowed by that display he complied"Alright, alright just don't harm me."

Eite led Erza down into the wine cellar when he said "Those god damn deliverymen. I told them to place those new wine caskets against that back wall…" grumbling angry he would have to have a word with the merchant from who he bought the next time he met him

'That's strange… Something special must be about that back wall then.' Erza realized and walked closer to the wall to inspect it 'Aha!' she found the out of place stone and prodded it activating the mechanism

"What the hell is this?" Eite screamed as the hidden door opened

"Don't play dumb, you know exactly what this is!" Erza stated and walked into the room "That's where you are producing the drug to bring this city under your thumb."

"What are you talking about, you insane bitch? I never planned such a thing." The jewelry wearing man exclaimed angrily

"Why don't we make an excursion down the rabbithole then. Your misdeeds will soon come to light." Erza stated and dropped the man down into the sewers, with her following soon after.

Naruto heard the berserk animals growling. Their bodies having grown to grotesque proportions as veins bulged out of their body at all places. This was the result of him feeding them potion after potion. Total axe-crazy animals, that were strangely loyal to him.

He currently couldn't be disturbed. He was in a critical phase. At the moment the concotion was more volatile than ever and it still had the berserk effect.

He unlocked the cages freeing three burly dogs, which had survived the mutation.

They growled and snapped viciously.

"Stop the intruders." Naruto ordered and the three animals sped out into the sewers breaking through wooden door as if it was paper

Erza slowly walked along the stone path of the sewers when she could hear the growling of animals. Vicious howls of frenzied beasts.

"Watch out!" she tried to warn Eite, but it was too late. The first dog pounced towards her though a quick slice with her sword cleaved the mutated beast in two. The assault of the second dog she couldn't stop though, as the canines strongs jaws clamped down on her plated left hand. The metal dented under the pressure and she was sure, if she didn't wear any more her arm would have been torn off.

The third dog that raced towards them pounced on the Eite. The slimey man let out agonizing screams of pain as he was mauled to death by the aggressive animal.

A quick hard jab with the pommel of her sword made the doge release her arm, as it shook itself in confusion. The dog recovered quickly though and lunged forwards, this time the sword mage was prepared though and sidestepped the telegraphed attack cutting the beast in half at its midsection.

For a few seconds the dismembered half of the dog bleaked its fangs at her before the unnatural life left it.

The third dog looked then up from the face it was eating, the white fangs painted a crimson red.

Warily the dog looked at Erza and growled threateningly. It obviously had found its second prey.

The animal sprinted with unnatural speed towards her and rammed its reinforced head into her stomach, knocking the air out of her and her sword out of her hand.

The sword was lying quite a bit away from her. Meanwhile the dog tried to eat her face as well, but she held its maw in place, though she knew she wouldn't be able to hold it like that forever. Focusing on her magic she called the sword telephatically to her and impaled the beast through it's head.

She threw the burly animal off of her and pulled the sword out of its head. Erza cautiously continued on the path until she came a hole in the wall. On the ground laid many wooden splinters, presumably of a door that once stood in that place.

She carefully looked into the room and saw many empty cages, a large cauldron with some sort of liquid in it and shelves upon shelves with all kind of substances. Currently a person was working on something in the back of the room.

She saw familiar blond hair and gasped in shock"Naruto?!"

Said blond turned around and looked into Erza's shocked face "Erza…" he sounded a bit sad "I'm sorry you found me."

"But…why?" Was all he had said and told lies? Was the time they spent together meaningless? She felt deeply betrayed, even worse than when Jellal had turned on her back in the Tower of Heaven "It was Eite, wasn't it? He hired you to do this right?"

She didn't want to believe that the person she loved could do this of his own volition.

It pained Naruto to see Erza with that look of betrayal on her face. He had contemplated if after all he should simply give up on his revenge, but his own thirst and the need to avenge Erza as well was too great.

He shook himself free of those thoughts, his wounded pride telling him to tell her off.

The reaper laughed boisterously, echoing through the room"No." he said with an evil grin "It was all me. I wasn't hired, by anyone. I did it all myself. I mean, as if anyone of those fools had enough brain to think of a plan that involved something this elaborate, right?!"

"Why did you do it, Naruto!" she screamed in anger "Why do you have to betray me like that?"

"Why?WHY?WHY?!" he laughed once more "I tell you why. I AM THE CRIMSON REAPER." He bellowed "The Murderer that has eradicated Konoha Village."

Erza had only known bits and pieces about the Crimson Reaper, but this crime had been made known through all of Fiore.

For a moment Erza felt weak, like the weight of the world might crush her, before she steeled herself.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Crimson Reaper, for you crimes against the Kingdom of Fiore and its people I will beat and detain you so that you may repent in captivity." The sword mage proclaimed, charging towards Naruto, sword in hand.

"Golem's Fist." Like many nights before a stone fist rose from the ground, moving towards the charging Erza.

In a flash of light she had changed her armor. Her whole body was now covered in spiky brown armor, that made it look as if it was covered in stalagmites. In her hand rested now a large two-handed hammer.

Giving the oncoming stone construct a light hit with the hammer, it shattered into tiny chisel.

Erza continued her charge, hammer in hand "Tremor Hit." The tip of the large weapon glowed in a soft yellow color.

Naruto quickly rolled out of the path of the offending weapon and once it hit the wall behind him, a tremor shook the room. Stone fell from the ceiling and the wall shattered into tiny pieces.

She would beat Naruto and make him face his crimes.

"Tremor Hit." Erza charged her attack once more and swung the weapon towards the blond mage.

"Wall of Mud." He slammed his hands on the ground a large wall of soft mud formed between them. The hammer impacted and released its Tremor, scattering mud all over the room.

That moment was perfect for a counter attack, as there would be a small time lag before Erza could effectively begin her next attack.

"Light Burst." A straight beam shot from his hands hitting the scarlet mage in the chest, throwing her back into the many shelves, scattering ingredients all over the room, unfortunately into the draught as well.

Unbeknownst to Naruto or Erza the potion began to evaporate very slowly filling the room with a coppery smell.

Erza picked her bruised body back up, just in time to dodge another Light Burst. She slammed her weapon down on the ground, splitting the ground beneath the blond, who lost his footing. She quickly requipped her flight armor, to appear before him and held him up by the scruff of his neck.

"Do you have anything to say before I knock you unconscious and take you to Era?" she asked

"Yes, next time check that you opponent can't do anything in such a situation." He adivsed her and and grabbed her bare arms. His hands formed sharp points out of blood that tore into Erza's arms, drawing blood.

Erza had to drop the blonde as she nursed her bleeding arms.

"First Blood belongs to me." He said and licked her blood from his fingers, his eyes turning dangerously crimson. Her blood had a truly delicious note to it, very sweet and something else he couldn't quite place at the moment.

Erza breathed in and was hit with a coppery smell, thinking it was her blood she ignored it, however that proved to be a mistake. She collapsed on one knee, holding her head, as she felt woozy.

There was something in Naruto which told him to draw more of that delicious blood he had tastes. His bloodlust, being fed a little blood, desired more.

He threw Blades of Blood towards the downed female, cutting shallow cuts into her shoulders and bare arms.

He walked towards her and held his finger under one bleeding cut. Sucking the crimson liquid off of his finger he shuddered in delight. He went down on her level and pressed his lips on her. Suddenly he bit down on her lips, drawing more of her blood, which he drank greedily.

Slowly a red haze tainted Erza's vision. She felt angry, undeniably angry. She wanted nothing more than to tear into her enemies, slice and dice them to shreds. And she would start with the one in front of her.

She swung her right fist, strength empowered into her opponents face creating space between them.

She pulled herself up and her scarlet red magic aura began to surround her.

She requipped into her Purgatory armor. A black armor covered in spikes appeared on her body. Her scarlet hair spiked into every direction, with her right her covered in a devilish manner. Her weapon of choice was now a large iron slab that looked like a cross between a spiked iron club on one side and a large, sharp cleaver on the other.

The one that had hurt her had to die. She needed to satisfy her bloodlust.

"DIE!" she screamed and with newfound vigor, strength and speed she swung the weapon at her target, who was too shocked to dodge.

"Stone Skin." He called out just in time, as the cleaver side hit him. Despite having reinforced his skin, the attack had still hurt like hell, he knew that if he had not managed to get his spell out in time he could've been very much dead right now.

The scarlet haired devil did not give him much time to recuperate. She viciously assaulted him again and again. The reaper had no time to counter attack, occupied with dodging her attacks as he was. But the air pressure alone was enough to cut deep into his body.

Naruto caught a glimpse of her bown eyes, no longer were they filled with warmth but instead there was only unbridled anger and bloodlust.

The blond froze, did he really make her hate him that much that she felt nothing more than the desire to kill him, to remove him from this world?

As he was battered aside by flat side of her blade, he could feel his bones breaking. He sat there now leaned against the wall, bones broken, bleeding from multiple cuts all over his body, his clothes torn.

She stalked towards him like an executioner, the blunt spiked end of her blade raised. They large slab of iron came down on the blond and all that remained was a splatter of blood on the wall.

Once her enemy was eradicated, Erza collapsed tiredly, if she had remained awake perhaps she would have noticed how some of the blood slowly pooled into the water of the sewer.

The blood soon formed the battered and beaten form of the blond mage, as he was ejected into the sea water.

The salty water burned his wounds, and his body hurt, but he preserved he still had the desire to live. Even as much in pain as he was, he swam from the city, leaving everything behind. Once he had made it to a nearby shore, he crawled onto the land. He was freezing partially from the water, partially from bloodloss, his golden blond hair had turned partly white.

* * *

He never once had come close to dying quite like today, even during all the years of training under Sorin.

'If that was Erza's true strength…' he realized 'Then, I could have not won in any case.'

Naruto realized he was weak. What had made him weak? Was it love? Was that emotion really so weak that it could not overcome something like anger and hate? That it even stifled his own power this much?

But if love was such a weak emotion why did he feel pain in his chest, pain that wasn't connected to any physical wound he had contracted.

All of a sudden he could feel salty tears drip down his face. This was the first time he had cried in a long time.

As he set there and wept he somehow felt free from everything. Once his tears had dried he decided to forsake such a fickle thing as love. An emotion caused by nothing else but his hormone addled brain. He would continue undisrupted with his original plan of reviving Zeref just so he could feel the satisfaction of killing that man himself.

And if he ever met Erza again, she would be his but by force instead of love.

Naruto laughed despite the pain in his chest "Yes. I will be Lord and Master."

* * *

Meanwhile Erza had woken up and didn't find Naruto's body only blood everywhere. The end of the fight was hazy to her and so she concluded that she must have completely killed him, leaving nothing but blood.

She had become a killer, tainted by the evil of taking a human life, just like Naruto. She had broken one of Fairy Tail's creeds.

She fell down on her knees and wept for her lost innocence.

Once she had recovered she told the mayor what had happened in the sewers and she received the ten million jewels, which felt like a paltry consolidation for loosing her innocence.

She didn't take much time to return to Magnolia and Fairy Tail.

There she gave the Master a curt reported. The old man had comforted like the grandfather he was to everyone in Fairy Tail.

Still Erza felt as if she never could trust anyone anymore, like she could never let anyone into her heart again.

That was the day Erza began wearing a custom Heart Kreuz armor to feel safe. That day the Crimson Reaper had officially been declared dead.

* * *

Interesting Fact: Before I even started writing the first Version of CRoTM this arc was set in between the Galuna and the Phantom Lord War arc. Originally Lucy and Erza were supposed to be the two people to investigate instead of Erza alone.

**Spell Grimoir**

Earth Empress armor: Holder Type Magic, Rank ?, Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary

Erza's Earth Empress armor reduces the damage done from Earth Element attacks by 50 percent.

In this form her weapon of choice is a large two handed hammer, which she can charge with Magic.

Tremor Hit: Holder Type Magic, B+ Rank, Offensive

Charging the hammer with magic upon her next hit a tremor wave is released into whatever she has hit.

The shockwave is powerful enough to shatter solid stone and bones.

Light Empress armor: Holder Type Magic, Rank ?, Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary

The damage of Light Element attacks is reduced by 50 percent. Her weapon is a mirror sword which can be charged with light magic.

Flash Slash: Holder Type Magic, C-B Rank, Offensive

Charging her sword with light magic which is released as a crescent shaped projectile.

Golems Fist: Caster Type Magic, B Rank, Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary

A stone fist rises from the ground. This fist is versatile in its use. It can charge at an enemy, dealing blunt damage. Capture an enemy or even block an attack for the Caster.

Stone Skin: Caster Type Magic, B Rank, Defensive

The Casters skin adapts the hardness of stone to mitigate damage taken, however a sufficiently powerful blow can still deal damage.

Mudflow river: Caster Type Magic, C Rank, Supplementary

The caster creates a slippery river of mud in any direction from his point. This spell can combo with other spells or simply rob an enemy of their footing.

Wall of Mud: Caster Type Magic, C Rank, Defensive

The caster creates a wall of soft mud. Most projectiles and weapons will stay stuck inside the mud.

Blinding Flash: Caster Type Magic, C Rank, Supplementary

From the caster erupts a bright flash of light, blinding any unsuspecting person looking at it for a short time.


	4. Ravens in flight and Snake in the grass

**A/N: **Well, I finally managed to finish this fourth Chapter of this story. I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

* * *

**Year X780, December**

The port town of Narcissus had managed to recover after the Crimson Reaper ordeal. Theo, the young page, had received ownership of the Golden Ship, after Eite had been killed by the Crimson Reaper. Since Eite had not named a successor himself and did not have any family who could inherit the Inn it fell to the mayor to reassign the ownership of the building.

Generous as he was he had given it to Theo, knowing no one else to sufficiently take care of the inn.

On another note, Mayor Preence had been unanimously chosen to be mayor once again even before the official reelection. Afterall he was the person who had hired the mage to kill the notorious criminal known as the Crimson Reaper. Such a wise decision had to be rewarded. Thus it could be said normalcy had returned to the city.

Right now however a stranged purple colored person was walking through the streets of Narcissus, receiving looks of disgust for his unusual skin color.

The person in question was small and stocky. He had blond hair, slicked back with a widow's peak and prominent sideburns. He possessed a massive head, round black eyes, a flat nose and a distinctive black goatee on his massively bulbous chin, which splits into two points. He carried a wide smirk on his face, showing his clenched teeth. His torso and head are quite large in comparison to his thin arms and legs.

Draped over his hunched back was a white cloth acting as a cape, with two large, red motifs reminiscent of stylized suns adorning its sides. Furthermore he wore a dark shirt with sleeves reaching down below his elbows, where they end in large, bolted armbands. His outfit is completed by a pair of dark olive pants, held up by a light, bolted belt, and simple shoes.

His goal was the Golden Ship inn. Walking through the white door, he walked towards the counter where the new owner, Theo, was waiting.

"Welcome to the Golden Ship. How may I be of service?" the boy asked his guest

"I'd like to make an enquiry." The violet skinned person stated

"Currently we have 12 empty rooms. Our new fee is 5000 Jewels per day." Theo answered, thinking that would answer the person's questions

"That is not what I would have asked, Owner-san" The person responded "I would much more like to see the list of people that were using this establishment from late October to early November."

"I'm sorry, sir but that is confidential information."

"I'm sure we could work something out."

"Please understand, sir. I just can't tell you about our customers."

Suddenly the purple skinned man's arm morphed into something that resembled a spiked club "You don't seem to understand me, Owner-san." The mage's voice while polite had a dangerous edge to it" You can show the guestbook to me and stay alive or…" he left the threat hanging in the air

Theo gulped audible and pulled forth the guestbook, where the name, duration of stay and room was noted.

"H-here…" He stammered "Take it, b-but please let me live."

The mage's hand returned to its normal shape "I'm pleased we could come to arrangement. Have a nice day." The man pocketed the book and left the building

Once he was sure he had not been followed, he opened the book.

During the week from late October to early November very few people had checked in. For example someone named Vasilli, he had occupied room twenty five. He had stayed for three days.

But what interested him were the people that checked out around the date the Crimson Reaper had been announced dead.

Only two people were of interest. Erza Scarlet the new celebrity of the magic society, being known as the slayer of the Crimson Reaper. For her outstanding deed she had been dubbed Titania, strongest female of Fairy Tail.

The other was someone named Naruto Uzumaki. Suddenly a person appeared in front of the purple skinned mage.

He was a tall, muscular man with black hair and tanned skin. His face is sporting a unique looking beard. He is wearing an ornate cloak along with a dress shirt and an ascot tied in a full Windsor knot.

"Have you retrieved what I demanded of you, Pudding-chan?" the man asked

"Yes, Ivan-sama." Nullpudding responded with utmost respect "The name of the Crimson Reaper is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Very good, Pudding-chan." Ivan said stroking his beard "All that remains for now is to find him."

"I'm sorry if I offend you Master but the Crimson Reaper is dead, there is no way for us to find him." Nullpudding argued, making a very good point

"You incompetent idiot." Ivan growled and exuded a terrifying aura that could be felt even through the mere Thought Projection he was using "As if one of those flies had it in them to kill a person. They don't have the heart for such a deed. No, most likely it just looked like he was killed and escaped. A resourceful mage like Reaper-chan wouldn't die so easily. Now be gone, Pudding-chan. Start devoting our resources to finding him."

"Of course. As you wish, Ivan-sama." Nullpudding bowed and the Thought Projection of Ivan flickered out of existence

* * *

**Central Fiore, a day's march from Shirotsume**

Draped in a thick midnight black cloak Naruto felt a shiver go down his back. Exhaling he could clearly see his own breath. It had become cold in Fiore, though unless one went further north or climbed one of the many mountain ranges one would be hard pressed to find snow.

A month had passed since his 'death'. He still could remembered the day he found out that he had been declared 'dead'.

_O__ne Month ago_

Naruto had just entered Iris Town when he was faced with many happy people. He wondered what the reason was for these joyous faces. When he saw someone reading a newspaper. Normally that wouldn't interest him but this time the headline caught his attention.

'Crimson Reaper stopped: Fairy Tail declared Number One Guild in Fiore.'

He rushed to the next Newspaper sale. Naruto grabbed a newspaper, paying for it, before beginning to read the article.

'The notorious Crimson Reaper has been stopped as of two days ago. Erza 'Titania' Scarlet had been forced to kill the criminal in self-defence. While the Rune Knights sent to investigate the scene of the fight were unable to find a corpse, the collateral damage and the amount of blood clinging to the surroundings give enough reasons to believe that he died of blood loss. The corpse itself seems to have fallen into the sewer system from which point it must have drifted on the open sea. Thus it is likely that the body of the Dark Mage will never be found.

Furthermore our reporter could not find the Reapers name or description. Any attempts to get Erza Scarlet to divulge them has been met with silence.

Fairy Tail's Guild Master Makarov has given his statement to the situations "It is obvious that Erza has been distraught by the events that transpired not long ago in Narcissus. Killing a human being, even in self-defence, weighs heavily on her conscience. That is why I ask you not to bother her about it."

Attempts to gather information from the residents of Narcissus have proven to be futile as well, as they collectively refused to talk to our reporter teams.

Evidently the Crimson Reaper disappeared as quickly and mysteriously as he appeared two years ago.'

For more information on the Crimson Reaper's crimes turn to Page three

The official statement of the Magic Council can be found on Page five

Page ten features an exclusive report on Fairy Tail's strongest female, Erza Scarlet

Page fifteen details Fairy Tail's rise to 'Number One' Guild in Fiore

He was dead? Well his other identity had been declared dead but still he was officially dead. That stumped him. What should he do now? If he started using his signature magic as he did before the Magic Council would catch wind and then start to actively hunt him down 'Especially if Erza is going to tell them about my name and looks.'

For now Naruto needed to lay low.

* * *

**Somewhere in the Sky, Grimoire Heart Airship**

"Master Hades, it seems the Crimson Reaper is dead." Ultear Milkovich, a pale-skinned woman with dark purple hair and brown eyes, reported to her Master

"It seems he wasn't as talented as I thought he would be." The old man commented "A shame, considering he would have made for a great seventh member for the Kin of Purgatory."

"But Master, surely you don't think him to be dead already?" the head of the kin asked

"Even if I didn't think he was dead, what would you have me do about it?" the bearded man asked slightly irritated "We have far more important things to do than devote our precious resources to the search of a ghost. Our first priority will stay finding the keys to unlocking Zeref and nothing else. I hope you didn't forget that, Ultear?"

"No, of course not Master." The purple haired woman bowed in apology, before leaving the 'throne room' of the Master of Grimoire Heart

* * *

**Undisclosed Location, Raven Tail Guild**

"Master Ivan, the Crimson Reaper has died, his last known locations was the port city Narcissus." Corona Flare told her Master

"Send Pudding-chan to Narcissus and have him find out whatever he can, by any means." The large muscular man ordered

"But, Master he is dead what purp-…" Corona was cut off as the man's large muscular hand impacted on her cheek

"Don't question my orders." Ivan roared in anger and watched as the red haired girl nursed her bruise, before slinking off to relay his order

_Present Time_

* * *

Travelling was considerably easier now, since nobody was actively looking for him. A few times during his travels the guards demanded some form of identification, along with details like reason for stay and the duration of his stay. These checkpoints were annoying to say the least but now he didn't have to deal with them anymore.

In any case there wasn't much he could do at the moment. Since he couldn't use his Blood Magic to drain targets of their knowledge, as he would risk exposure, his search for information on Zeref came to a halt.

Not that he should be fighting already, after his lost fight against Erza he had recovered for the most part but even with advanced regenerative the broken bones he had received needed time to heal. They were still somewhat brittle and he estimated that he still needed at least two to three weeks before he could attempt to fight someone on his own level again without risking re-injury.

* * *

**Two Weeks later**

Yesterday Naruto had been contacted by a strange purple man, who he was supposed to meet again today. The most disconcerting thing was, this man knew, he didn't believe, didn't joke but knew to one hundred percent that Naruto was the Crimson Reaper.

_One day ago_

It was night time. The dark winter sky filled with stars. He had just entered an unnamed village to rest and stock up on food and water.

"Hey…" a voice called and in the shadows of some building he saw a figure, though it was too dark to make out anything beyond that this person was pretty small for an adult. He was about to ignore the voice when it spoke once again "Hey, Reaper-san…" the voice called out

The blonde's eyes widened and narrowed to dangerous slits, his irises flashing red "How do you know that?" he growled threateningly and walked up to the small person, who he now could see had purple coloured skin.

"Come to the clearing outside the village tomorrow morning, Reaper-san… that is if you want to find out more." The person laughed and disappeared

_Present time_

If Naruto didn't want to find out how the purple skinned mage came into possession of that knowledge he probably would have killed him on the spot 'Even if that meant breaking my bones again it would be worth it.' Naruto thought grimly 'That man is dangerous.'

The blonde mage patiently waited at the spot he had been told to wait at, a small forest clearing. The cold wind blew through the de-leafed trees, causing the wood to creak ever so silently.

"You came after all, Reaper-san." The purple mage commented his teeth exposed in his trademark grin "I was afraid I'd have to drag you with me." The man chuckled in sadistic mirth.

"Who are you, what do you want from me and how do you know that _I _am the Crimson Reaper." The blonde instantly demanded his voice gaining a dangerous edge

The purple man laughed "Not so hasty, Reaper-san. I am not the one that's going to talk to you, but if you must call me something, call me Nullpudding." The man, now introduced as Nullpudding, responded "I want you to meet, Alexei-sama."

Suddenly an armoured form flickered into existence in front of them.

'Thought Projection!' Naruto realized as he looked at the large armoured person that had appeared out of nothing

Alexei looked just like a medieval knight, instead of wearing a helm he wore a mask. His large body was completely covered in armour, except for the man's visible hair. His face was hidden behind a golden mask. It was slightly triangular, with a square part in the chin's region and two pointed parts on the sides, in the region of the ears. The characteristic feature, of the mask was a trident-like plate in the forehead's region, forming a "W" pattern. It also had two opening next to the plate that allowed Alexei to see, as well two white strips on each side of the mask. The rest of the armor was composed by a metallic pectoral, separated to the waist's cingulum by a piece of dark cloth. The cingulum also has two pointed plates on each side of s body. For the legs that were also separated from the cingulum by cloth, Alexei used the traditional cuisse, with round poleyns and stylized greaves. Alexei's arms were also covered by the dark cloth, and end into metallic bracelets attached to gauntlets, that had sharp pointed fingers.

"Hello, Naruto. My name is Alexei. I am the representative of the Guild Raven Tail." The knight said his voice slightly muffled

"Sounds an awful lot like Fairy Tail." The blonde commented with a smirk and he could hear Alexei's teeth grinding beneath his mask

"Yes, we are not on best terms." Alexei stated "You could say we are Fairy Tail's pendant."

"So a Dark Fairy Tail?" the blonde asked sceptically 'That's actually pretty pathetic.'

"That is correct, we are Anti-Fairy Tail." Alexei confirmed "And after your last interaction with that Guild we would like you to join us."

The blonde frowned "Forget it. I won't join your little club of copy cats."

"The offer still stands, think about it and to help make your decision I even have something useful for you." The knight said

"And what should that be?" the blonde asked carefully

"We heard you are looking for information on Zeref. I know of someone that might be able to tell you more, but he has hidden himself." Alexei explained

"Who is it?" the blonde asked eager to get information on Zeref

"My old teacher, Orochimaru." The armoured man stated "You need to travel further north until you get to a town called Tetsuiro. Once you have passed that town, you'll come across a coniferous woodland. There will be a single tree that is completely barren. If you walk west from this tree you will find a large rock wall. Carved into the rock is a small snake, if you press down on that part a hidden door will reveal itself to you."

On one hand he could get his hands on prime intelligence on Zeref on the other hand he could be walking right into an elaborate trap. Of course he had heard of Orochimaru, one of the Three Legendary Mages. Not to mention he had some of old man Sarutobi's knowledge on them. A team of three Saint-class Mages that were famous for their immense strength. And while Naruto was confident he could match the strength of most S-Class Mages, the S-Class Mages that are on the level of the Ten Wizard Saints are generally much more powerful.

'But this is a chance I have been waiting for… I can't let it slip through my fingers.' The blonde contemplated his options "Say I follow your instructions and enter that hideout of his what happens when I meet Orochimaru? I'm sure he won't hand over that information of his own volition."

"Do you need me to state the obvious?" Alexei asked with glee "You kill him of course."

Naruto mulled over his options a last time before deciding what to do "Alright, I'll do it."

"Excellent." Alexei said "We'll contact you after you are done."

Naruto remained silent, he didn't like the fact that they knew his identity, but what did they want to do? Travel to Era and say they, a Dark Guild, know the whereabouts of the Crimson Reaper.

Who would believe them?

'Yeah, that's pretty unlikely.' Naruto agreed with himself and set his course north towards the town of Tetsuiro.

Once the blonde had left Nullpudding spoke up.

"Are you really giving him a choice in that matter, Ivan-sama?"

The armoured man laughed boisterously "Of course not, Pudding-chan." Ivan denied "You are going to tail him. If he manages to come out alive he will likely be weakened enough for you to overwhelm him and bring him to me. If he doesn't manage to come out, we'll just have to track Orochi-chan down again and drag him out of there."

"What makes you think Orochimaru-san won't kill him?" the purple skinned man inquired curiously

Beneath his mask Ivan grinned "You apparently don't know him as well as I do." He said knowingly "Orochimaru is always interested in young and talented mages, especially if he has such a unique magic as Naruto has. He won't kill Reaper-chan, no, no. He'll capture him and perform unspeakable experiments on him until his mind and body are broken and is no longer useful to him but a scientist like Orochi-chan wouldn't ever kill an interesting specimen."

"How ingenious, Ivan-sama." Nullpudding praised his master, before the Thought Projection flickered out of existence

* * *

**One week later**

He had just arrived in Tetsuiro. The city wasn't as big and wealthy as Narcissus had been, in fact it couldn't even compare to the size of that city but the streets were still bustling with many people, especially since it was close to Christmas. A thin layer of snow covered the ground and even more was softly falling from the sky.

He pushed himself past the shopping mass of people. Until he bumped into a large queue. This queue consisted of many men and some women. As he followed the queue he saw that it led to a book store. A large sign was posted outside serving as an advert.

On the sign he could read in large letters: Grand Release! Icha Icha Special XXX-mas Edition. Just today, buy one copy and get it signed by the author, Jiraiya, himself.

Jiraiya was the second of the Three Legendary Mages and easily the most perverted. After his first book had flopped, he began writing more erotic works, much to the delight of the many men and some women who praise the book series as one of the greatest works of literature in human history.

But behind all that perverseness that man was indubitably just as strong as Orochimaru.

However Jiraiya and his book wasn't why he was here. Naruto turned away from the store and continued along his way, following the instructions Alexei had given him.

Out of the corner of his eyes the white haired author, better known as Jiraiya, spotted a peculiar shade of blonde hair he knew only a certain amount of people to possess and with the way it was spiked there came only one person to his mind 'Minato!' Jiraiya thought alarmed 'But he died on that dreadful night fourteen years ago.'

Jiraiya quickly stood up dropping his pen, which he had used to autograph the copies he sold and rushed out of the book store, following the blond haired figure he had seen.

"Jiraiya-sama!" the distraught owner of the bookstore called after the author, while all the fans who had yet to get an autograph moaned in dismay that they wouldn't get it now after all, while all the ones who had a signed copy felt so much better.

The white haired mage trailed behind the blonde boy, carefully hiding his magic signature and presence.

Jiraiya had originally come to Tetsuiro because he had heard from certain sources that his old teammate Orochimaru had a secret base of operations hidden somewhere in the area surrounding the city. After the fallout between the three Mages, which had been caused by Orochimaru, he had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the Dark Mage, feeling somewhat responsible to keep Fiore safe from the man's machinations.

So now imagine his surprise when an almost carbon copy of Minato, opened a hidden door on the surface of a rock wall.

'No, doubt there. It's almost like a younger version of Minato.' The white haired mage noted

While Minato had been taught by Sarutobi, just like himself, he had been good friends with the blond haired man. They had rid the world of the occasional Dark Guild, when he was still actively doing missions instead of fully devoting his time to being an author, not to mention they had shared the occasional drink. He even had let Minato read his very first book, being one of the few people to like it, his wife Kushina being one other person. They even had decided to name their son after the Main Character.

'That's right, Minato and Kushina had a son!' he realized 'But shouldn't he have died back then, during the Crimson Massacre?' That was the big question Jiraiya had. He of course had heard of the Crimson Massacre, the day the Crimson Reaper had turned his home village into a ghost town, leaving not a single person alive that day 'Obviously, Naruto must've survived somehow… but how?'

Jiraiya mused inwardly but decided that, that was a question for late for now he had other worries. Namely if Minato's son could be in cahoots with Orochimaru? How else would he have known about the entrance to that man's hideout?

Jiraiya was about to follow the blonde boy when he sensed a new presence.

"Come out." He shouted in the general direction of the magical source he had sensed and watched as a small purple skinned man appeared from behind the shadow of the nearby trees.

"It seems you are just as skilled as people say you are, Jiraiya-san." The man commented

"Who are you?" the white haired man inquired carefully, extending his senses should he have any more backup

"My name is of no concern to you." Nullpudding responded "You aren't the reason why I am here."

"Do you belong to Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked his expression growing stony as he prepared himself for a fight

"No, I don't work for Orochimaru-san." The purple skinned mage responded "However it seems that I will have to fight you to complete my goal."

Needles grew from the purple skinned man's skin, as he bloated up like a puffer fish "Needle Barrage."

A stream of thick and sharp needles shot from the man's body towards Jiraiya.

The white haired man's index and middle finger were stretched out, the rest of his fingers were pressed against his palm. He made a circular motion, creating a bright circular shield "Circular Defence Seal."

The needles repeatedly impacted on the shield, which soon began to crack under the pressure of the attack. Quickly realizing that he would have to fortify his defence he prepared a second defensive seal. He slammed his palms together and pulled them apart revealing a cube between his palms. He thrust his arms forward, throwing the cube into the way of the oncoming attack. The large cube, which was littered with seal script stopped the attack without further problems.

'I shouldn't take him so lightly. He has at least S-Rank ability.' The white haired man decided and went on the offensive. He thrust his index finger towards the purple skinned man "Amaterasu Formula 31." A purplish beam consisting of script shot towards the Dark Mage, who brought his large arms to the front to block the spell. The small beam struck the purple man and exploded upon impact, despite throwing up his guard the small man was thrown back into a tree leaving pin shaped holes on the bark.

The purplish skin was blackened from the explosion and a few light burn marks could be seen on it.

Nullpudding pulled himself out of the tree shaking the pieces of bark that hung to his pointed body off of him.

With speed betraying his small stocky frame he charged towards Jiraiya, intent on crushing the man with his massive fists that resembled two morning stars.

'I can't let those hit me.' The white haired man thought to himself 'I guess hand-to-hand combat is no option at all against him.'

He crossed his arms and flung them towards his opponent unleashing an x-shaped formula "Formula 55."

As tempted as Nullpudding was to just take the attack head on he knew this time it was far too dangerous. He rolled out of the way and the formula detonated upon hitting one of the many trees. Many trees behind the first were missing a large part of their trunk. The damaged trees soon fell over.

* * *

Meanwhile with Naruto

Naruto had found the hideout as Alexei had described. He was walking down the stairs into the depth of the complex. As soon as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs he already came upon an intersection "Left or right?" he muttered to himself and decided to go left. He followed the hallway, which was littered with many doors each leading either to another corridor itself or to an empty room.

Apparently Orochimaru's underground complex was a maze. He had been wandering the hallways for a few minutes now and so far he had found nothing, which he found quite irritating. Fortunately he came upon a room which was inhabited for once.

Inside were two masked men playing a card game.

"Do you think Orochimaru-sama will ever have us do anything?" the first asked

"I wish I knew the answer to that question." The second one answered with a heavy sigh "What would I trade for some exci-… urk."

He was cut off as a whip made from the blonde's blood wrapped around his throat stopping him from talking.

"Your wish has been granted." The blond said with a smirk and pulled the blood whip tighter around the man's throat until with one more tug his head rolled from his shoulders.

The first mage was about to attack when he felt the weapon constricting around his throat as well.

"Lead me to Orochimaru." Naruto demanded his glaring crimson eyes instilling a great amount of fear in his captive, who could barely nod in acceptance of his role as a hostage.

"It seems we have an intruder, Orochimaru-sama." A shadowy figure commented, while pushing up their pair of glasses

"Kukukuku. Let the 'Five' play with him." Orochimaru responded his yellow snakelike eyes glinting with malice

Naruto had been led to a large spacious room. In the back he could see two figures. One was standing, his hands at his sides, showing that he was relaxed. The other one was sitting on a large throne like chair. In the distance he could see that the sitting person had piercing yellow eyes.

"Welcome, to my humble abode." A raspy voice came from the far end of the room

"O-Orochimaru-sama, please help me." The strangled hostage pleaded and the raspy voice chuckled in response

"Why should I save you? You are expendable." Orochimaru stated coldly "But I shall put you out of your misery if that is what you want."

The man snapped his fingers and Naruto dodged to the side as he heard the barely audible whizzing of some projectile in the air. A single red arrow had pierced the man's head straight through, killing him instantly, before the corpse went up in flames.

"Fucking trash." Naruto heard a decidedly female voice curse from somewhere behind him

"A lady shouldn't curse so much." A rough, male voice said in a chiding tone

"Shut up, fatty." The female one replied again

"Kukuku. I don't know what you want from me little boy, but have fun playing with the 'Five'." Orochimaru stated with a grin, as light lachryma, which hung on the walls of the room, lighted and filled the room with light.

The 'Five' Orochimaru had mentioned, had surrounded him. One was a large, fat, boy with an orange Mohawk. The second one was a dark tanned boy with black hair, in his hands a golden coloured bow. The third was a female member, she had red hair covered with a black hat and in her hands was a single flute.

The fourth person was someone with dark grey hair and light blue lipstick, he looked very androgynous but could be identified as a male person, besides him stood, the fifth member of their group, a person that looked just like the fourth, which obviously meant they were brothers.

The fatty of the group charged straight at him, however Naruto knew focusing just on him would be fatal.

The instant the fat guy had cleared half the distance between them, the blond heard a flute melody and his vision started to distort, a second fatty had joined the first and he couldn't discern who was real and who was not.

The same melody started to play once again and the two that charged at him multiplied by two once more.

Naruto decided he could no longer wait and needed to defend himself 'When in doubt, just attack all of them at once.' He thought to himself "Light Rain." Multiple beams of light shot towards the four fatties "Mirror Shot" four round mirrors appeared in front of his targets swallowing the light and sending it back at him.

The sudden return of his own attack surprised him, forcing him to jump out of the way on a short notice, only then he realized the mistake of his actions as he heard the whirring of an arrow in the air.

"Golem's Fist." A large stone fist rose from the earth and tried to stop the incoming arrow, unfortunately the arrow pierced through the stone but was veered of trajectory, tearing through his cloak instead of body.

As slow as he was, the fatty had used this window of opportunity to deliver a powerful punch. The punch held enough force to throw him quite a bit back, while knocking the air out of him.

It was evident that these five or at least four, for the fifth one had not yet done anything, were a very good team, but in the end they would kneel before him. After his loss at 'her' hands he would not be defeated again.

"What a pathetic, guy." The female one taunted "Can't even last one hit, I wonder what he thought, coming here."

She walked towards the downed blond "How did you like my Doppelganger Melody?" she asked smirking at him, suddenly her eyes widened as she felt something cold grip her leg. Something red had wrapped around her left leg.

"Kneel before me!" the blonde ordered defiantly and pulled the red head face first into the ground, bruising the girl's face. Naruto pulled himself up and was about to hit her once more with his blood whip.

"Fire Arrow." The tanned guy had shot a burning arrow towards Naruto, who fell back as a small patch of fire burned where he had stood, cutting him off from the red head.

"Thanks, Spiderman." The red haired flute using mage said rubbing her bruised face before she glared at Naruto "I'll kill you for that, fucker."

She put her flute to her mouth and began to play this time a different melody.

There was a high pitched sound and suddenly he couldn't hear anything anymore. He was deaf, at least temporarily.

Which would prove to be a decidedly disadvantage for him, as he didn't hear the fat guy charging once again towards him or the beams of light, which he definitely knew weren't his, flying towards him. However his sixth sense was sharp enough to pick up on those attacks.

"Protector Golem." From the earth rose a two meter tall stone man, who threw himself into the path of the fat guy, since he seemed to be the strongest of the five, at least in the physical strength department.

"Light Shield." Next he threw up protective light shields to defend himself from the light magic that had been cast his way.

While the two light based attacks cancelled each other perfectly, Naruto went on the offensive.

He knew though that he could not overly use his Blood Magic as the only blood he had access to at the moment was his own. He could not risk to weaken himself through blood loss right now.

For now he just had to deal with the two drag queens and the guy with the bow 'The red haired girl may have made me deaf, but that means at the same time I can't hear her melodies, which makes her reliant on her teammates to beat me.' He thought to himself 'Now if I only knew which of the two used the mirror magic…' he cursed inwardly

This wasn't the time for mistakes, but he couldn't waste any more time either.

"Howling." He sent a wave of high-pitched sound towards the brothers, knowing that using mirror magic he wouldn't be able to absorb and throw the attack back, before following up with a second attack "Blinding Flash." The moment he saw that the brothers had been blinded by the attack Naruto concentrated on the dangerous one of the five, the sniper.

Holder Type Magic users were a bane to him, their magic was incredible versatile even if it depended on an object, but the archer of those five would be able to shoot all kinds of arrows at him, which would be quite difficult to counter.

"Spear of Blood." Siphoning some of his blood to throw the spear-shaped blood at the bow-magic using boy, knowing he would dodge them he already had gathered the magic energy for his follow up spell "Grappling Hook." A large grappling hook attached to a long translucent chain shot forward and grabbed the boy as he was jumping out of the blood spears path. He tugged on the chain and pulled the boy harshly to the ground, dazing him and keeping him from shooting more arrows. Meanwhile Naruto shortened the distance between the two of them, by reeling him in like a fish.

As the black haired teenager was lying before him he sensed a strong vibration, a quick glance back he saw that the fatty had just punched a hole straight through the stone construct which was slowly crumbling and the fatty once again charged at him. The two brothers were slowly recovering as well. Naruto had to be quick now.

"Crimson Blade." A one-handed sword formed out of his blood and the blonde mage quickly cut his opponents bow in half, before mustering his strength and flinging his chained enemy into his charging ally. The fatty had caught his teammate without problems, which had set him back for just a single instant.

Naruto however didn't try to get out of the way of the charging juggernaut, knowing that if he just barely dodged the fatty would overextend and be open for a point blank counterattack. As the orange haired mage closed in on him, the blonde's legs tensed for a timely dodge, but then he noticed that his feet were stuck. He couldn't move, but why? Then he saw the grinning archer, who motioned for him to look down. His feet were covered in a thick web like substance.

'He must've done that when I threw him into the fatty.' Naruto realized and crossed his arms in front of him to lessen the impact. The orange haired juggernaut hit him and he felt as if his arms, would break. The moment he could no longer keep his guard up, the fatty threw a quick second punch towards his stomach, ripping the web and lifting him from his feet, as he was punch into the ceiling above, making a slight indentation into the stone. As he laid there on the ground in pain the archer pointed his wrists at him and thick spider webs hit him, wrapping his in a thick cocoon that kept him locked down.

The Five walked closer to him, all with a mocking smile on their lips. Slowly his hearing returned as well.

"Not so tough now, are you?" the red head laughed gleefully "Didn't it strike you as odd, that Kidomaru let you destroy his bow so easily? Or how Sakon, Ukon and I never stopped you from doing so?"

"And now, I would love nothing more than to kill you now, but I have an even better idea." She smiled like a sadist that had found a new victim

'I could escape using Sanguine Pool, but I don't think now's the right time, they are still too much on guard.'

"Jirobo here…" she pointed to the fatty "Has a special magic called, Magic Drain. With a single touch he copies whatever magic you use, he has a limit of being only able to store three types of magic though and he only copies a person's main magic, but I think he wouldn't mind playing a bit with you using your own magic."

Jirobo nodded and grabbed Naruto's face, his hand glowing pale blue. The fatty dropped him again and a pale aura of crimson surrounded him.

Naruto began to laugh, as the fatty actually did what he did.

"What are you laughing about, shit-head? You are completely at our mercy." The red head spat at him "Or perhaps you've just gone insane?"

"Pitiful creatures." He spoke and his crimson eyes caused the red head to recoil "Didn't you parents ever tell you to be careful about what you eat?"

Jirobo began to cough, as blood streamed out of his mouth. The orange haired mage fell to his knees convulsing, as blood streamed out of every of his orifices… The price for trying to use Blood Magic without having the body needed for it.

"Jirobo!?" Sakon or was it Ukon, exclaimed surprised before glaring at Naruto in anger "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing it was all his own fault for trying to use 'MY' magic." Naruto answered sincere and smirked, before muttering "Sanguine Pool." He could feel his body turn into blood which slipped through the web cocoon.

'What an interesting magic.' Orochimaru thought grinning like a madman

The four remaining were greatly confused at losing their target. The blonde reassembled in front of the surprised red head and grabbed her by the throat, before she could use another of her pesky melodies. He choked her, while she clawed at his hand until she went slack in his hand. He was about to snap her neck, when Erza's form overlapped her.

Naruto snarled in anger and threw the body aside to concentrate on the last three, who were pelting him with webs and light.

He forcefully ripped all the blood from Jirobo's dead body and fired it at Kidomaru, who was pelting him with webs.

"Blades of Blood." The blood formed into a myriad of knifes and shot towards the web using mage.

"Silken Steel Web." A large hexagonal web with no holes formed in front of his opponent, sticking to the ceiling and floor, causing the many blades to impact upon this defence. The web shield was elastic and hard at the same time. The blades of blood impacted without visible damage as the shield simply caved backwards from the impact.

"Light Beam." "Mirror Shot." He heard the two brothers shout their attacks "Light Shield." He once again threw up a shield to block the attack, but to his surprise the beams of light shot past him, at the same time he noticed that the mirrors weren't placed in front of his opponents.

Quickly turning around he saw the mirrors absorbing the light, before shooting a second wave of beams at him. Naruto threw himself out of the way so he wouldn't risk being caught in the attack.

"Web Shot." Kidomaru had moved past his defence to attack Naruto, shooting sticky webs at the blonde. While in mid-air the Blood Mage turned his body, but still one of his arms was hit. His left arm was covered in sticky web, so for now he would be unable to use it.

Naruto pointed his right arm towards Kidomaru "Disturbed." The web magic using boy hid himself behind his web shield, in the belief Naruto would attack him from the front.

Suddenly the ground burst beneath him as he was hit with a high pitched sound attack.

While the archer was incapacitated he charged towards him, knowing that the shield would block his ranged attacks.

"Lion of Light." "Two-way Mirror."

The large beast of light jumped through the large mirror that held a reflective surface on both sides and from each a lion exited the mirror. The two lions pounced towards the blonde.

"Protector Golem." A new construct of stone rose from the ground and threw itself between the two beasts and its master. With a single punch of its heavy hand one of the light constructs faded out of existence, while the second one tore out the stone man's right arm and continued to charge towards the blond, when a large stone fist impacted upon the lion, as the golem had shot its second arm like a projectile.

Just as Kidomaru was about to pull himself from a ground he felt a cold blade at his throat. The blade of a large red scythe was inches away from his neck and not even a second later the web mage's head rolled from his shoulders, while Naruto reabsorbed the blood into his body, knowing that he would need his arm free to use spells to beat the two brothers.

"You'll pay for killing the others." The two brothers spoke in unison "You'll fall to our ultimate combination, technique. No one has survived it."

Sakon pressed his right palm against Ukon's left palm, as they concentrated their magic power "Unison Raid: Hall of Piercing Mirrors."

The moment the last syllable left their lips, all around the blonde mirrors appeared trapping him inside. Soon one mirror glowed, as a beam of light shot towards him, which he barely managed to dodge. The beam impacted upon one other mirror and was reflected. Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed that the mirror that was hit began to glow too and soon a second beam of light joined the first.

'If I can't dodge this it's over for me.' The Blood Mage realized and more and more light bounced between the mirrors each time it was more difficult to dodge. Slowly his clothes were ripped by the beams and occasionally his body was grazed.

Soon he would not be able to dodge anymore. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated, just as the mass of light was about to impact upon him.

The mirrors shattered and the light vanished and all that was left was a single bloodstain on the ground.

"We did it, brother." Sakon said panting in exertion

"Yes, we avenged the others." Ukon agreed equally as exhausted as his brother that was when the blood reformed into the black cloaked blond, who was shivering a little.

'Having to use Sanguine Pool two times in such a short time, is pretty taxing.' He noted 'I can feel how weak my body is at the moment but it's not like those two can do anything as exhausted as they are.'

"Golems Fist." Two stone hands rose from the ground and captured the two brothers in their mighty grasp, squeezing their bodies tight in their grip, until beneath the strong grasp of the stone fists their bodies broke.

The moment he had finished the last of the five, he turned to the snake like man. He knew that if he fought Orochimaru right now, he was certain to loose 'Well, it's not like I care for Alexei and his schemes anyways.' But he still had to get the information from the Legendary Mage.

"Kukuku. You are certainly not an agent of my dear old friend Jiraiya, Reaper-kun." The pale mage stated "The question is who told you how to find this hideout and why are you here?"

"I was told you knew something about Zeref." Naruto stated darkly "What do you know about that man?"

"Zeref?" Orochimaru asked surprised, before chuckling darkly "Why, you certainly don't belong to the Balam Alliance then… they know to respect my privacy. But how about I tell you about Zeref as a reward for beating those five incompetent idiots?"

The blonde remained silent and nodded.

"Very well. This is third hand information, but very reliable. Quite a while ago an associate of mine visited me, he goes by the name of Brain. He told me that Grimoire Heart, the second of the three corner stones of the Balam Alliance, is searching for the 'keys' to awaken Zeref, but they are certain that the Dark Mage is still very much alive."

Naruto was shocked. This was prime intelligence on Zeref. If he had known that he was still alive he wouldn't have spent so much time researching anything on resurrection. Perhaps he should try to track down Grimoire Heart, but he had no idea where to start…

'Wait… He mentioned this Brain. Perhaps that man knows how to find Grimoire Heart!'

"Now, tell me where I can find this Brain." The blonde demanded encouraged to have found a hot trail towards his goal

"I only said I would tell you about Zeref, didn't I?" the snake man laughed amusedly

"You will tell me, NOW!" Naruto growled in impatience and threw a knife made from his blood at the pale skinned man, who made no attempt to dodge. Instead the knife passed straight through him, like Orochimaru wasn't even there.

"Thought Projection." The blonde muttered in anger

"Correct." Orochimaru praised his yellow eyes mustering the Crimson Reaper "I knew that someone had detected this hidden base. So I moved a few days ago. Only very few of my subordinates were actually stationed here. Those five you fought were actually supposed to ambush who ever dared to find his way into this room, but you defeated them so magnificently. Well then Reaper-kun, I have important things to attend to. Until the next time, if you survive that is. Because below this Throne is a large stash of explosive lachryma hidden, with Living Link Magic tying the trigger to the Five you fought, as a contingency plan should they fail." The snake like man laughed, before the thought projection disappeared.

The grey haired, bespectacled man nodded towards him and then spoke "We'll meet again, Reaper-san." Before his thought projection too, disappeared.

That was when he felt explosions shaking the ground. Naruto quickly ran through the door of the large room and navigated through the narrow corridors. The explosions became more frequent and soon he could see a large orange fireball racing towards him, just as he had arrived at the exit.

Naruto dived through the door and ran the stairs up, but the explosive blast finally managed to catch up and violently expulsed him.

* * *

Jiraiya and Nullpudding were both panting in exhaustion, littered in bruises.

'I've really gotten rusty.' Jiraiya realized much to his own displeasure, but knew he could end this fight pretty soon. A while ago he had used the cover of an explosion to inscribe a seal on the ground that activated when an alien magic source stepped on top of it.

Nullpudding charged once more towards Jiraiya and because of his exhaustion his perceptiveness had taken a hit, which is why he didn't notice the seal on the ground.

The moment he stepped on top of it the seal flashed a bright blue and the ground turned into quicksand.

"Trap Seal: Quicksand."

Jiraiya cancelled the seal once Nullpudding was sufficiently submerged in the ground. All that stuck out of the ground was the man's head, as the ground had solidified once again.

"Now you'll tell me what you plan to do with Naruto." Jiraiya demanded and glared intently at the purple skinned man "And believe me when I say, I have my methods to make you speak."

"It seems the Master will be displeased with my Failure." Nullpudding commented absentmindedly and suddenly they felt an explosion shake the earth.

Jiraiya heard a crash and turned around. There lying against a tree was the blonde he had tailed. His body was bruised, on his forehead was a slightly bleeding gash and he was shivering. He rushed towards the downed blonde and picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder.

When he returned to his captured opponent all he saw was an empty hole.

"How troublesome." Jiraiya muttered to himself and walked back towards Tetsuiro, he had some questions for the blonde once he woke up.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

"So Pudding-chan you mean to tell me that you failed your task and Reaper-chan is now in the hands of Jiraiya?!" Ivan bellowed in rage

"Yes, Ivan-sama." Nullpudding bowed in apology

"If you were here your punishment would be most harsh, but that will have to wait for now you still have use to me.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

"He was quite interesting wasn't he, Kabuto? That Crimson Reaper is so very interesting." Orochimaru commented to his right hand man "I must have him and study him. That magic of his could be an important clue to immortality."

"Shall I send Guren or Kimimaro after him?" the bespectacled boy asked his master

"Send Guren. Kimimaro is in no condition to face the Reaper right now." The Dark Mage instructed and Kabuto left to do as he was told

* * *

**A/N:** And that's it. Hope you enjoyed it and until the next time.

**Spell Grimoire**

**As always any Spell or Magic not mentioned here has either already been used in a previous Chapter or can be found on **

**Needle Barrage**: Caster Type, Offensive, A-Rank

Once the initial transformation required for the use of Needle Magic is finished the User can fire a barrage of needles at his opponent. The needles possess great piercing power.

**Circular Defence Seal**: Caster Type, Defensive, B-Rank

The Caster forms a circle in the air and creates a barrier of seal characters. This Seal can withstand some Damage but not all and will easily crack under pressure.

**Cubic Defence Seal**: Caster Type, Defensive, A+-Rank

The caster slaps his palms together and forms a three dimensional seal cube, which will stop close to all frontal attacks.

**Amaterasu Formula 31**: Caster Type, Offensive, B-Rank

A seal beam is shot towards the target from the casters fingertips that explodes upon impact. The spells form betrays the little piercing capabilities it possess, as despite being a beam it can pierce only the most brittle of things, before exploding.

**Formula 55**: Caster Type, Offensive A-Rank

An X-shaped blast is shot towards the casters enemy. As soon as it hits a target everything behind it explodes in an X-shaped blast.

**Blood Whip**: Caster Type, Offensive, Supplementary C to A-Rank

A strong whip is formed out of the caster's blood. The whip can be used to hit, but also to grab and grapple targets. The length of the whip is determined by the amount of blood spend on it.

**Mirror Shot**: Caster Type, Offensive, Defensive B+-Rank

The caster creates a mirror or mirrors which begin to absorb ambient light for a shot at the caster's opponent. Should a light spell hit the mirror's the light is absorbed and used for the spell instead, which greatly decreases the charge time.

**Doppelganger Melody**: Holder Type, Supplementary B-Rank

The caster plays their flute any enemy affected by this melody will have an object in their sight doubled. This Melody can stack upon itself and will always increase the sight twofold.

**Fire Arrow**: Holder Type, Offensive, C-Rank

The caster creates a fire arrow and shoots it at his intended target. Should the arrow miss a small patch of fire is created at that spot. This fire will continue to burn for a while.

**Melody of Silence**: Holder Type, Supplementary A-Rank

For a short while the victim of this spell is made deaf. The caster is thus dependant on their allies to finish the victim, as the deaf victim can't be affected by any more melodies.

**Protector Golem**: Caster Type, Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary A-Rank

The caster creates a golem from the ground below. The size is dependent on the magic power spent to create it. The Golem is given a single command upon its creation, either verbal or non-verbal. This command can't be changed and the Golem follows it until it is destroyed or dismissed.

**Spear of Blood**: Caster Type, Offensive B to A-Rank

The caster creates a spear of blood from their blood, which either can be thrown at the enemy or be used in melee combat.

**Grappling Hook**: Caster Type Offensive, Supplementary C to A-Rank

The caster creates a chain with a grappling hook at the end using their magic and shoots it towards their opponent. The target of the spell can then be reeled in or hurled around.

**Crimson Blade**: Caster Type Offensive, Defensive C to A-Rank

The caster creates a sword formed out of their or others blood. The size of the sword is dependent on the amount of blood spent, but will at least always take on the shape of a short one handed sword.

**Silken Steel Web**: Caster Type, Defensive A-Rank

The caster creates a large shield from the web they create. This web is very durable, but also elastic, which makes it hard to penetrate. However this shield needs points on which it must hang (Trees, Ceiling, Ground and so forth). In a completely open field this shield would be useless as it would have no upper fix point.

**Lion of Light**: Caster Type, Offensive, Defensive A-Rank

The caster creates a single lion out of light. The lion has semi-sentience and can react according to certain situations to fulfil its purpose and is not restricted to the usual linear movement of light magic.

**Two-way Mirror**: Caster Type, Defensive, Supplementary B to A-Rank

The caster creates a Two-way mirror which will reflect light in both directions. Any light magic spell cast upon it will pass through its surface and is doubled exiting from both parts of the mirror.

**Reaper's Scythe**: Caster Type, Offensive B to A-Rank

The caster creates a large scythe from their blood. The size is dependent on the amount of blood spent.

**Unison Raid: Hall of Piercing Mirrors**: Caster Type Offensive S-Rank

Sakon and Ukon combine their Mirror and Light Magic to trap the enemy inside a cage of mirrors. A single mirror will fire a beam of light towards their enemy. Once this beam hits another mirror the beam is reflected and another beam is fired. Until every single mirror has fired once and the victim trapped inside is pierced upon every last beam.

**Trap Seal: Quicksand** : Caster Type Supplementary C-Rank

The caster marks a spot on the ground with this seal. Once a foreign source of magic steps on top of the seal the ground below turns into quicksand, dragging the victim down. If the seal is cancelled the ground returns to whatever material it was made of before.


	5. Annoying Author and Capturing Crystals

Author's note: Well six month is a long waiting time. I'm sorry for that, but I was rather busy these last month, not to mention that this chapter didn't want to write itself was smoothly as the others, but it's finally done. I hope you'll be able to forgive me for this long waiting time and I'll try to write the next one much faster, although I can't promise anything.

Without further ado read and enjoy.

* * *

Naruto groaned, his head throbbing in pain as he tried to open his eyes. All he could see was white, at first because his eyes had to adjust to the brightness of the day and then because he realized he was staring at a white ceiling, looking around the walls were white too as were the covers of his bed.

'Where am I' he asked himself and tried to remember what hes was doing 'The last thing I remember is escaping from Orochimaru's hidden bunker.'

"You are awake." he heard someone say, the voice slightly familiar but he could not say where he knew it from at the moment. He turned towards the source of the voice, which belonged to a man with long spiky white hair. That was when he remembered where he had seen the man before, Sarutobi's memories were full of that man, having been one of the old man's students, Jiraiya was his name.

"Mind telling me what you were doing with Orochimaru, Naruto?" the white haired man got straight to the point

"No, I'd rather not. I don't even know you to begin with, so you have no right to know about my business." Naruto replied inwardly congratulating himself for that reply, knowing that Jiraiya was a 'nice' 'light' mage he wouldn't try to force anything out of him

"Well, I am Jiraiya one of Sarutobi's former students. One of the "Legendary Three Mages" and author of the well known Icha Icha Paradise book series. I was even best friends with your father, Minato." Jiraiya told him and Naruto gave him a deadpan look. The white haired man smiled "Well now that you know who I am, I think you could tell me what your business was with Orochimaru considering he is a wanted dark mage."

"No." the blonde stated flatly "I still see no reason to tell you about anything."

Jiraiya frowned but gave it a rest "Alright, I can't force you to tell me anything if you don't want to."

"Glad you realized that." the hospitalized boy responded

"However there are some other things I would like to know about." the white haired man said and his demeanor made clear that he wouldn't accept a no this time around "How did you survive the Crimson Massacre?"

"I left the village." the blonde answered with a flat voice, which technically wasn't a lie, he had left the village prior to the Massacre, however Jiraiya never asked if he wasn't present at that time.

Jiraiya inwardly sighed, he knew that the boy wasn't truthful with him, he just didn't know if it was for the type of secrets he had, because of the lack of trust or maybe it was both.

But he couldn't leave the son of one of his best friends and the only survivor of that massacre all alone to fend for himself, especially if he had some dark secrets. He just wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he strayed from the right path.

"Why did you leave the village in the first place?" Jiraiya wanted to know at least that much

"...Try living in a place that denies your right to exist for the whole time you are there." the blonde responded with a frown his voice laced with a light tone of anger.

'Well at least he is showing some emotions this time, even if such anger isn't good.' the white haired man thought to himself, before deciding to let his questioning rest for the time being.

"All right, I understand." Jiraiya tried to placate the young boy, before adapting a thinking pose "You know it must be hard fending for yourself. How about you travel with me? I'm sure there is a lot I can teach you about magic too, if that's what you are after."

"No, thank you. I'd rather continue to travel on my own, I think I managed pretty well these last few years." the blonde responded his voice once again neutral, not giving away anything

"What? Why not? Hundreds of young mages like yourself would beg to be given the chance to travel and train under such a renown mage like me!" the legendary mage exclaimed surprised

"Then perhaps you should look for exactly such a person, but I remain not interested."

"It's because I write erotic books, right? Because I am a pervert." Jiraiya fell into fake lamentation "Oh I should have never taken up this vice." He cried out in mock despair

And for a split second Naruto's face held a smile as a slight chuckle escaped his lips, as he considered the absurdity of what the old man had said.

"I assure you, your... 'hobby' has nothing to do with my decision. I am just not interested and let's leave it at that." Naruto explained and pulled his body up into a seated position. He could feel the dull pain of each wound that littered his body.

'Perhaps...' he thought ' Some moronic prude would have problems learning from him, but only a truly stupid person would refuse tutelage from him, perhaps I would have accepted his proposal if it weren't for the fact that I already know the core magic types he is using. Except maybe for his Toad magic, but I have little interest in that.'

"Where are my clothes?" the blonde inquired, feeling the need to quickly leave the hospital and carry on with his quest for revenge. Thanks to Orochimaru he now knew that Zeref was still alive somewhere and he had to find him and then he would crush him. Without remorse he would make the Dark Mage suffer as long as he could before snuffing out the last bit of life in him. He wouldn't even deign to drain the Black Mage, every last piece of his self would be eradicated from existence.

"I'm sorry to say but they were nearly completely destroyed when Orochimaru's hideout exploded, but I got you some new ones." the white haired man explained "Don't worry about the cost, just think of it as a belated birthday present."

"Thank you." the dark mage said. While he wasn't a nice person by any stretch of the imagination he was far from ungrateful.

Jiraiya had bought him a pair of blue plants, a black t-shirt and a long sleeved blue, matching his pants color, shirt, a pair of socks and some sturdy shoes that would keep together even if he walked across Fiore and back and of course a new cloak that would protect him from the cold weather up here.

Naruto got dressed in his new clothes and frowned lightly, as he suppressed the urge to tear his clothes of his body.

He didn't feel well not wearing anything red. It made him feel naked despite everything he wore.

Although the Reaper didn't feel a hundred percent well, still feeling the aftereffects of liquifying his body two times in a row, large expenditure of magic energies and the wounds that littered his body, but that would be gone in a week tops.

"Well thanks for everything old man, but I'll be on my way again." the blonde stated and draped the cloak over his body. He walked up to the door of his room and pressed the handle down, opening the door and leaving the room, Jiraiya still inside, behind him.

For now he had to somehow find this Brain, who told Orochimaru about Zeref.

Naruto decided to travel westwards from now on, because if he continued to travel north he would come across the Blue Pegasus Guildhall and he didn't have any interest in dealing with another Guild.

As the white haired mage saw the blonde leave he smirked to himself 'If that idiot thinks I'm not going to follow him, he's more naive than I thought.'

* * *

**Four Days later. Unspecified location: Four days west of Tetsuiro**

The last two days had been rather uneventful for Naruto. Since Christmas had past just yesterday he had avoided all kinds of towns, as the happy families would have made him angry at what he had been missing out all theses years ago. Meanwhile on a more positive note his wounds had been healed so far, but his body still felt a little weak from being liquified, he doubted he could fight at full capacity if he wanted to, most likely he shouldn't be using Sanguine Pool for a while now.

And to top it all the old coot had been following him these past two days 'If the senile old fool believes I didn't notice him 'stealthily' following me, he should consider retiring early.'

But unknown to Naruto this day should prove to be more interesting than he had imagined.

Not far from Naruto he a blue haired woman observed him. This woman had been tracking him down for the past two days.

* * *

**Unknown location: Guren's hideout. Time:Four days ago.**

Guren sat inside of her small hideout that Orochimaru had provided her with. She had blue hair which she wore in a spiky ponytail with two bangs framing her face. Her lips were covered in thick red lipstick, contrasted by her light skin and dark eyes.

Her outfit consisted of a green dress with a long left sleeve and a short right one, a red turtle-neck which had a white, fluffy collar and brown gloves. Under the dress, she wore a one piece red suit. For shoes, she was wearing calf-length brown sandal boots.

On top of a table near her was a large orb, a communication lachryma.

The orb began to vibrate catching Guren's attention who had been honing her skills.

She touched the lachryma and the pale visage of her master, Orochimaru, looked at her from the surface.

"Hello, Guren." the snake like man greeted her, his voice foreboding

"Master, what an unexpected call." she responded and decided against kneeling, since Orochimaru wasn't present in person

"Yes, I imagine so." he hissed "It has been quite a while since I had a mission for you."

"You have a mission for me?" she asked in surprise, a bit of delight filling her voice as she may get to kill someone "Tell me what I shall do and it will be done, master."

"Today someone stormed my base near Tetsuiro, killed Jirobou, Tayuya, Kidomaru, Sakon and Ukon." Orochimaru stated

"That is quite unfortunate." Guren responded carefully, although she wasn't on best terms with the five, they were all loyal to Orochimaru which made her feel just a bit angry at whoever had killed them, although she knew that Orochimaru valued only strength and if they were defeated then they deserved it.

"Indeed, very unfortunate." the legendary mage said and she could almost feel the mirth inside his voice, as if he was eagerly anticipating something, through the lachryma projection "You mission is as follows. Capture the intruder and bring him to me, alive. He is blond, has blue eyes and is about five feet and three inch in height. He is in somewhere in his mid teens and he goes by the name of Naruto."

Guren listened to the description her master gave her and nodded "I shall capture him at once." Guren answered her voice filled with devotion and a slight bit of disappointment at not being able to kill anything.

"I hope you wont prove yourself to be a failure unlike those five pieces of trash that died." the pale man grinned threateningly at her and she could feel shivers traveling down her spine, knowing that she had to expect harsh punishment should she fail in capturing her target.

* * *

**Orochimaru's base**

"You think Guren will be able to complete this task you have given her, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked sceptically

"Kukukuku." the pale skinned male laughed in amusement "Don't worry, Kabuto-kun. With her Crystal Make Magic she should be suited very well to deal with him."

"But what if your old teammate Jiraiya is with him I doubt she'll be able to take both of them out." the gray haired man argued

"I doubt Reaper-kun would want him to be around, it would greatly decrease the freedom of his movements."

"You are of course right Orochimaru-sama, but there is always a small chance..." Kabuto pushed up his glasses in worry. Although he held a certain disdain for Guren mainly because each time they met she had to question his worthiness as Orochimaru's right hand man, but he knew that she was one of Orochimaru's most valuable assets. Her combat strength was perhaps just a bit below the level of Kimimaro, who was currently still recuperating

* * *

**Present Time**

Finally she had found her target. He was casually walking through the forest, his blue clothes sticking out like a sore thumb and even his magic aura wasn't suppressed, radiating off of him like a flare.

Guren doubted that he had sensed her else he would be more on guard.

"Crystal Make:Knives." whispered and the air crystallized into a four pink knives. The knives were sturdy and could easily clash with any known iron or steel weapon without breaking into pieces 'As long as he doesn't die I'm sure I can injure him as much as I want to.' she thought to herself and let the four knives fly towards his limbs, intent on disabling them.

Naruto was continuing his trek through the forest and his mood... well it could be better. Jiraiya was still following him. About an hour ago, he thought the old fool had given up when he couldn't sense the erotic authors magic signature anymore, but apparently that was just to lull him into a false sense of security. Jiraiya hadn't been able to keep himself fully from being noticed, likely from being without practice for so long, but finally he managed to sense the last specks of the mans aura, who had been hiding just at the edge of his range. He had to divert nearly all his focus to keep himself updated on the mans position. If he needed anymore attention to keep sensing him he could stop moving all together, because he would risk walking into trees and what not.

'Can't he just leave me alone?' the blonde thought exasperated and nearly too late he heard the whirring of something flying in the air.

His eyes widened in surprise as he realized that he was being attack and hoped that it wasn't too late to dodge.

Luckily for him it wasn't. The offending weapons grazed his body, cutting open his clothes and skin, before impaling themselves into nearby pieces of the forest.

The blood mage quickly moved into cover and tried to track the trajectory of the projectiles, while his mind went into overdrive.

'Damn it.' he cursed' If Jiraiya wasn't there I may have sensed my attacker earlier. Just my luck that he could sneak past my attention like that.'

He was really angry at Jiraiya now and if he saw the man the next time in person, he would pay him back somehow, but for now he would have to deal with his assailant.

The place from which his enemy had thrown his weapons had of course been deserted.

The blonde stopped trying to sense Jiraiya and focused fully on any unknown signatures in the surroundings.

He sensed something coming from above him and jumped out of harms way as a large crystalline lance was about to impale him.

He couldn't use any Blood Magic because that would reveal himself to Jiraiya who had to be lurking around somewhere.

"Golems hand." the large stone construct sped towards Naruto's opponent who touched it the moment it came into range

"Crystallize." a feminine voice said and the stone was turned into the same pink substance the knives had been made of, before shattering.

Naruto now got a closer look at his opponent who was a woman with blue hair.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the blonde inquired

"I am Guren one of Orochimaru's most trusted followers. I am here to bring you to him." the blue haired woman explained "But enough of the talk. Crystal Make: Jade Crystal Blade."

The air once again crystallized to form two blades along Guren's forearms. The blue haired woman then followed up by rushing towards her opponent.

The blonde wracked his mind as he began dodging the woman's assault. He had quite a lot of magic types stored in his mind, but he didn't know which one to chose. He had largely relied on his earth magic besides his blood magic, which was why it was so easy to drag all that knowledge to the forefront.

All other type of magics had been mostly a one time situational use.

'Having all that knowledge in my head is useless when I can't bring it out as fast as I want to.' he cursed himself as the woman nicked him a few times, her attacks picking up speed as she realized that I didn't try to attack 'Okay all the holder type magics are out... Don't have anything to use those. And I can exclude anything that uses either a liquid, solid or gas as a base for attacks as well, since she'll likely just crystallize those and shatter them.'

The blood mage gathered his magical energy"Lion of Light." and the large luminescent lion shot towards his target with a loud roar. The beast pounced towards Guren and the woman so surprised that he decided to fight back forgot to dodge.

The blue haired woman was thrown to the ground as the beast tried to maul her.

She kept the lion barely at bay"Crystal Make: Crimson Fruit." around the light construct she formed a pinkish prison that resembled as the name told a fruit.

She barely had enough time to dodge the incoming Light Rain, before retaliating with Crystal Needles which were knocked out of the air by a pair of bird shaped lights.

The birds descended towards her but were quickly impaled upon another wave of crystals.

"Crystal Make: Crystal Shuriken." a pair of the pink throwing weapons appeared in her hands and were thrown towards her target, this process she repeated a few times until Naruto had no choice but to create a large mud wall that kept the shuriken stuck in it's soft structure. Unfortunately this robbed Naruto of his vision as well, as suddenly a wave of crystals shot along the ground and stopped him from moving.

The blue haired woman moved around his wall and he could feel her gathering her magic energy as the crystals around his legs started growing into a large pillar that kept him fully immobilized.

Perhaps if he had been better prepared he could have beaten her, but Guren had completely negated his usual battle tactics and caught him off guard. Now she would bring him to Orochimaru.

Which would have made finding this Brain easier, surely his 'friend' Orochimaru should know where he is, but at the moment Naruto was sure the much more experienced mage would beat him.

But that was all moot as he was going to be dragged off and experimented on until his usefulness had run out.

Slowly he ran out of air and he lost his consciousness inside of the crystal pillar. The last he felt was a small tremor.

Guren smiled she has successfully completed the task her master had given her.

She was about to cancel her technique so as to not suffocate her target and incur the wrath of her master, when she felt someone gathering a large amount of magical power, giving her ample time to create a Jade Clone of herself and fall back from the point that was targeted, as she snuffed out the last bits of her magic signature.

Two large purple magic formulas were formed. One under and one above her clone"Amaterasu Formula 60" the purple formulas created an explosion, filling the air with dust. After the dust had settled she saw that her Clone had been shattered into hundreds of tiny little jade green splitters and the prison around her target had shattered without causing damage to him.

Then she noticed the person next to her blond target. A large man with spiky long white hair. This was a person you couldn't mistake no matter who you were.

It was Jiraiya a mage on the same level as her master, if she had to capture this Naruto and defeat Jiraiya she was confident that she wouldn't be able to accomplish this without being defeated.

So she retreated and planned to ask her master for assistance in dealing with his old teammate.

* * *

**Later that day**

Nighttime had settled in over Fiore, as Naruto finally woke up.

The blonde pried his eyes open to look into the starry night sky above him, while he heard the crackling of a campfire close to him.

"The sleeping beauty is finally awake?" Jiraiya asked bemusedly that the young boy had been out of it for so long

Naruto's mind was still a bit fuzzy from the lack of oxygen so he decided to ask the legendary mage "What happened?"

"Well, you fought with one of Orochimaru's henchman and lost quite badly to her I might add." the author of the Icha Icha series explained and the fight to Guren came back to his mind. That time he fought against Erza he had simply been outclassed in terms of speed and power. He had not been able to react at all to her attacks, which was partly his concoctions fault, but Guren wasn't necessarily stronger than him, she just had out skilled him. Had he been better prepared he was sure to beat her.

"You are just lucky I was in the area to save you or you would be strapped to some kind of table in one of Orochimaru's labs right now."

Naruto snorted at his explanation "Sure you were 'in the area'." the blonde commented sarcastically "More like tailed me for the past days."

"Y-you noticed me?" the white haired man asked incredulously, having thought that his stealth skills hadn't dulled these last years he had more or less dedicated himself to writing his books "But back in Tetsuiro you didn't notice me while I followed you to Orochimaru."

"What are you so surprised for? Yes, I noticed you and you did it very well but for some reason there was just a tiny bit of your signature you couldn't erase. Using nearly all my focus I had been able to keep track of you, which is how this woman, Guren, had been able to get the drop on my in the first place." the blonde said with a large hint of annoyance in his voice

"So you are saying it was my fault you got your ass kicked?" the white haired man asked with a smirk

"No, I am saying it is your fault that someone could sneak up on me unnoticed. If you didn't insist on following me, things could have gone a lot different." Which he himself doubted very much, but Jiraiya didn't need to know that. And although he had sworn that he would pay the old man back he had saved his life, so he decided that he would drop it.

In response the white haired man muttered something about ungrateful blonde brats that didn't appreciate him saving their asses.

"But glad to see that you aren't in cahoots with Orochimaru." the white haired man confessed

Jiraiya had noticed Guren sneaking up on the blonde, but wanted to see what she wanted.

If Naruto had really been working for his old teammate the blue haired woman could have given him new orders or something of the sort. Since that had not been the case, he wanted to see what Minato's son could do in terms of magic and he was impressed. Naruto was incredible for a boy his age. He had large magic reserves, good control but he lacked experience so someone like Guren who could have been close to twice his age had been able to make better use of her skill set than him.

As a matter of fact he didn't know what to think of the boys magic. Using two different types of magic at that age was rather unheard of especially two such different elements.

'I mean there are of course the holder types, who pretty much all know Requip magic. Some similar magics like Take Over and Transformation are seen often together as well, but Earth type elemental magic and Light that is pretty far apart from each other. Earth is very rigid, sturdy and excellent in defending. Light however is flexible, intangible and very offensive.' Jiraiya contemplated ' At least he is taking somewhat after Minato using Light Magic.'

However what worried the white haired man the most was that he could not discern what of these two magics was his natural or first magic.

Usually young mages only used one type of magic, especially in combat, to master it and then some would consider learning a second one.

All mages usually had a magic that they were best attuned with, with enough experience or skill in sensing magical energies one could even get a feel for a persons natural magic, as the more you used this kind of magic the more it imprinted on your signature. And you couldn't just do it from a distance, you had to be close. Back in the Hospital he didn't think to check it, the questions he had wanted to ask Naruto were far more pressing in his mind.

But now he could get a feel for it and it wasn't like anything he ever felt before.

For example Minato, who had in his life nearly always used Light magic, his magic felt like a soft warmth, like a soft protective blanket which would cover you. Orochimaru's magic had felt like something fleeting, something you wanted to grasp but could not, but Naruto's it was unlike everything he knew. He had even felt the magic of a Dragon Slayer at one point, which felt like the typical elemental magic, but stronger, raw and uncontrolled.

Naruto however if he had to describe it, it felt like a liquid and a bit sticky, cold and metallic like a knife, but beneath that he could feel something ever changing. This all worried Jiraiya very much.

'What are you hiding?' he thought to himself as he observed the boy who was quietly staring or maybe he was even glaring into the campfire' No use mulling over it now.' he finally decided "I'm going to sleep now, if you are gone in the morning I am just going to follow you again."

Naruto gave no sign of acknowledgment and so Jiraiya just tried to make it comfortable for him on the cold forest floor.

Naruto meanwhile was spending his time sorting all the knowledge he had drained from his victims. A blood mage had besides the physiological changes they went through an increase in mental abilities too. They didn't get smarter though, no their capacity to store knowledge and information was increased. They could store an endless amount of knowledge and recall it, however they did not possess perfect recall. It took him quite some time to bring a certain kind of information to the front of his mind, unless he kept using that certain type of knowledge over and over again.

That was at least until he got more experienced in sorting through his mind and filtering the unneeded things out or found something to increase the speed at which he could recall information.

The blonde spent a few more hours with his mental exercises, which Sorin had taught him all those years ago, until he decided to call it quits and fell asleep as well.

* * *

With Guren

She had more or less escaped certain prison sentence at the hand of Jiraiya.

Why had her master not mentioned that his old teammate would accompany the boy?

Did he want her gone? Had she lost her usefulness? These and other thoughts were going through her head, but then decided to discard them. If she had displeased Orochimaru-sama then he would deal with her directly instead of doing such a roundabout way.

She took out a small communication lachryma that fit into her hand, it was much smaller than the one standing in her hideout.

Focusing her magic energies into the small orb the glinting yellow snakelike eyes appeared, before being followed by the mans pale face.

"Ahhh, Guren. I hope you decided to contact me to report a successful capture of your target?" Orochimaru asked intrigued and a sense of foreboding overcame her

"No, Master." she admitted her own failure

"Is~ there a reason you have failed?" he asked dangerously"Or was it just your own incompetence?"

"I apologize Orochimaru-sama, but the boy was in the company of your old acquaintance Jiraiya. It wasn't possible for me to beat him and to take the boy."

"Ahhhh, yes~ my pesky old fool of a friend." the snake like man seemed contemplative" I didn't expect him to be anywhere near the boy, so you are forgiven this time."

"Could you be so gracious as to send me some backup to deal with him while I capture the boy, Orochimaru-sama?" she implored of her master

"Why, yes indeed I could. I am a generous master and I realize that it is impossible for you to deal with Jiraiya on your own." the pale skinned man grinned maliciously "I will send Kabuto-kun along, he will be able to keep the pervert occupied."

"Thank you, master. You are truly most generous."

"I know my dear Guren-chan." his voice held a dangerous edge to it "But know that should you fail a second time, I wont excuse you again. Understood?"

"Yes, of course master. I understand completely."

"Good. Kabuto should arrive in about two days." once Orochimaru had finished his sentence he ended the connection

* * *

**Two days later**

Guren saw the gray haired bespectacled man walking towards her.

She had been restless these last days, waiting for her masters right hand man to arrive.

"Finally you are here." she noted with a large amount of impatience in his voice "We can get going then. They should not have too much of a head start."

"You should watch your tone when speaking to me Guren. It is only by Orochimaru-sama's generosity and the fact that capturing Naruto-kun is of the utmost importance that I am here." Orochimaru's right hand man replied his voice filled with a hint of anger "Otherwise I would leave you to fend for yourself."

She matched the glare he had sent her, as they started the chase after Naruto and Jiraiya.

* * *

**One day later**

The two dark mages had finally caught up to the two.

"As agreed I will take care of Jiraiya while you deal with the boy." Kabuto declared "I think I will be able to buy you at least fifteen minutes against Jiraiya. Use that time to capture the boy. If you have him we'll meet half a days walk to the north along the river."

Guren nodded and decided to begrudgingly follow the mans plan even if she didn't like him.

Guren gathered quite a bit magical energy and formed the crystal to her liking "Crystal Make: Crystal Dragon." a large pink crystal dragon with jade eyes emerged from below Guren and carried her towards her target. The crystalline dragon charged at the blonde, maw wide open.

The blonde rolled out of the way as the dragon tore through a row of trees and turned to charge towards him once more.

"Amaterasu Formula..." Jiraiya was about to cast a spell, but he had been interrupted as he dodged a glowing blue hand. He stared at the glasses wearing young man who was poised to strike him once more.

"I recognize you! You are the 'Ghost Surgeon' Yakushi Kabuto." Jiraiya exclaimed remembering the mans face from a few wanted posters

"My what an honor that my reputation has even reached the likes of the great Jiraiya-sama." the gray haired mage mocked and charged towards Jiraiya "I know quite a lot about your fighting style from my master. I wont let you set up any kind of runes or formulas."

The legendary mage dodged once more a swipe of the glowing hand.

Kabuto was using an outlawed assassination magic called Ghost Wounds. The user coated their hands or any body part they wanted in magic and when they hit somebody the damage passed through the skin, completely foregoing any external damage to focus on internal damage. If somebody had enough knowledge on human anatomy this style was really dangerous. You could have been poked or hit and feel just a little hurt and hours or days later die in a pool of your own blood.

That was how Kabuto got his name. With the precision of a surgeon he would strike a person maybe once or twice in a fight and then retreat only for that person to die a belated death.

'This guy means business.' Jiraiya thought to himself as he dodged his opponents attacks and was countering with a Formula that didn't take much time to set up, which Kabuto dodged equally as well

Meanwhile Guren and Naruto had been driven away from their two respective 'allies'.

The blue haired woman was still sitting atop her dragon trying to hit the blonde pest, after all a few superficial wounds like a missing leg or so would be fine.

"Give up brat. You only got away last time because Jiraiya rescued you. You are all alone now."

"All alone you say?" he asked with a smile "That is exactly what I wanted all this time you know?"

Naruto knew that under Jiraiya's watchful gaze he wouldn't be able to fight to kill or get to drain her of Orochimaru's possible whereabouts.

These last three days he had spent a lot of time sorting through all the different magic styles stuck in his head, this time he wouldn't lose.

"Chain Lightning." a blinding white bolt of lightning shot towards the onrushing dragon and pierced straight through him, coming out at the end of it. Where the lightning had pierced the crystal it was nothing more than molten slag.

The bolt didn't continue in a straight line though, it turned in mid air and the crackling energy rushed towards Guren's back.

She jumped from the dragons back onto the ground and so she barely dodged the lightning that would have pierced through her body.

The spell didn't turn again and instead rushed towards the blonde who caught it in his hand, feeling the raw unbridled power of his own spell, before having to redirect it, sending it into a nearby tree, which exploded showering the forest in burning pieced of wood and setting the rest of the tree ablaze.

While the blonde had been distracted by his own display of power Guren had used that window of opportunity and had created a razor sharp 'wheel' around her body. The ground under her split as she gained momentum.

"Protector Golem." he raised the large stone construct from the ground tasked with protecting him. The stone giant reached towards the wheel to grab it only for it to slice through it like a hot knife through butter.

"What you can do I can do as well." Naruto smiled evilly at her "Shatter." Just as Guren was in between the two parting halves of stone, the construct shattered violently.

Guren had to react fast as she saw the sharp stone shrapnel fly towards her and with a little effort she changed the wheel "Crystal Make: Crystal Orb." the 'two-dimensional' wheel filled out to each side covering her in a protective layer of he precious Crystals. The stone had little chance of piercing the hardened minerals.

"Let's see if you can take the heat." Naruto's eyes flashed crimson red as his hands contained red hot fire magic "Fire Storm." and a torrent of flames engulfed the orb and a good deal of the forest, while Guren was being roasted alive in the protective layer.

"Shatter." she shattered the orb and tried to get as fast out of the fire as possible, but her previously pristine skin was now littered with blisters and burned skin.

She realized that if she kept fighting like this she would likely die.

"Crystal Release: Growing Crystal Thorns" she pressed here palms on the ground and a sharp pink, but thin crystalline structure rose from the ground growing towards Naruto.

The blonde saw the crystal emerging from behind the torrent of flames and dodged to the side only for the construct to grow to the side following his movements.

The blonde kept evading the growing structure and even blasted it with lightning, but even cut off from its point of origin the crystal kept growing.

And while Naruto was busy dodging Guren gathered as much of her magical energy as she could muster.

A translucent prism grew around her body, encasing her once more in a protective layer of crystals, but her technique didn't stop there. The prism rose into the air, hovering over the fire on the ground, close to the tree tops.

'I just hope he is going to survive this. I didn't pull out my strongest technique to survive just to fail my mission in the end.' she thought to herself and the prism focused her energy into a visible form at the front.

"String of Glory." a glowing blue beam of her energy was shot at blonde whose eyes widened in panic

Naruto cursed inwardly, he had just gotten rid of this ever growing 'weed' crystal and now he knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack in time, his only hope was that he could put up a strong enough defense, because his body still had not recovered enough to enter a sanguine pool.

"Light Shield." Normally this would form many shields beside each other but this time he placed them overlapping in front of each other, raising a large line to meet the beam flying towards him.

The beam came closer and impacted upon his first shield of light which was pierced like paper and the following few did nothing to slow the beam either. As soon as the attack reached the last pair of shields it slowed down and Guren started pumping the little rest of her magic into the technique, which gave it the push needed to pierce the last shields, however the attack had been severely weakened.

As the beam impacted an explosion of dust robbed Guren of her vision. Her crystal prism fell apart because of her lack of magic power and she only barely broke the fall, else she would have broken her legs instead.

She knelt panting on the the ground, sweat pouring down her face in exhaustion and from the heat of the nearby flames. As she walked towards the dust cloud she expected to see an injured but unconscious Naruto.

Her eyes widened in shock "No, it can't be..." she muttered and Naruto had indeed been injured. His clothes had once again been torn up 'I seriously need to consider getting sturdier clothing.' Naruto thought to himself, as his blood streamed down from cuts all over his body.

He walked towards Guren who was frozen in shock, an expression of terror on her face as he grabbed her throat lifting her up "Let's see if I can pry Orochimaru's location out of you."

"I wont tell you anything." she said in defiance although she knew that she could not defend herself at all right now

He smiled maliciously and it somehow reminded her of Orochimaru when he had a test subject in front of him "What makes you think this is a voluntary process?"

His eyes were glowing so strong you'd probably see them even in the darkest night "Transfusion."

The red life giving liquid started pouring out of Guren and into Naruto as he assimilated her knowledge.

Taking a few minutes to regain his bearings he looked at the corpse in his hand in disappointment.

"She knew nothing after all, but maybe Kabuto will know more."

Before he made his way to the point where the two were supposed to meet he threw the corpse into the burning fire to erase the evidence of his blood magic. After all he could not have people believe that he was still alive, could he?

And behind him the fire continued to burn strongly.

* * *

With Jiraiya and Kabuto

Jiraiya had sensed the large build up in magical energies and he thought he could even see something floating in the air. That was a sign for him that he had to increase his efforts to beat Kabuto and get to Naruto.

"Amaterasu Formula 60. Amaterasu Formula 50." he combined the two formula spells and Kabuto was surrounded with formulas. One above, one below, one west, east, north and south of him. In effect this was the same as Formula eighty, but with less power and a quicker setup time.

The formulas exploded around the bespectacled man. When the dust had disappeared Kabuto was mostly unharmed, but rough scales could be seen covering his skin.

"Snake Magic." Kabuto stated a forked tongue tasting the air, as he disappeared from view.

He appeared behind Jiraiya, who suddenly jumped higher than would have been humanly possible out of his position. His hands hat become webbed, a single wart resting on his nose, as he eyes were surrounded by red markings. He landed on a nearby tree and then spat orbs of water towards Kabuto, who dodged them with his increased nimbleness and was just about to attack when his eyes flickered over to the site of Naruto and Guren's battle

'Seems I didn't even have to go for the fifteen minutes.' he realized as suddenly Jiraiya's foot impacted with his jaw sending him flying into and through a nearby tree.

If Kabuto had not been using snake magic he was sure to have not only his jaw broken, but many of his bones as well. Instead they were only heavily bruised.

As Jiraiya was walking closer to him "I'm sorry I can't stay and fight you, but I have somewhere to be and you should perhaps see after Naruto-kun." the gray haired man advised and sped away past the trees while Jiraiya made his way towards the other battle site, only to find large flames in front of him burning the forest to cinders.

Jiraiya quickly used what little he knew about Water and Earth magic to stop the fire from spreading further eventually a few hours later snuffing it out.

All that he found among the ashes of the many trees was a charred corpse.

"No..." Jiraiya was devastated for a moment thinking that it was Naruto's corpse, but it wasn't "This belongs to that Guren woman..."

He didn't know if he should be happy that the son of one of his best friends had survived or sad because he had been forced to kill somebody.

"Well, I better go looking for him." Jiraiya spread his senses out, but could not get a feel for the blondes magic signature. Jiraiya cursed his luck and tried to move as fast as he could, when he broke down in pain "Shit, my leg." he cursed and held his right leg in pain "Kabuto probably tore some muscles, but when..."

He tried to think back 'That's it! When I jumped into the air he must have grazed my leg for just a split second and cut the muscles.'

Jiraiya cursed his luck 'And I am not even Tsunade with her legendary bad luck.' he thought to himself 'Well that's it for chasing after the brat.'

It pained him to leave the blonde alone somewhere in this forest, with the weight of having killed someone on his shoulders, but until his leg was healed he couldn't travel fast at all.

* * *

One hour ago at the meeting spot

Naruto had finally found the place Guren and Kabuto were supposed to meet, the glasses wearing guy probably hadn't specified an exact location just to annoy Guren by having her search for him.

The reason why he knew he had found the spot was a single note addressed towards him.

'Congratulations on defeating Guren, Naruto-kun. You surely affirmed the interest my master has in you. The next time he will send someone who is even stronger than, Guren was. You should prepare yourself.'

He scrunched up the piece of paper, glaring at the offending note like it had insulted his mother, because once again he was stuck in a dead end.

However a grin spread over the blondes face "I hope the next guy snake face is going to send knows where he's hiding at."

* * *

**Spell Grimoire**

Guren's abilities can be found on the naruto wiki, most of the time with the name used otherwise it is pretty obvious which technique is meant.

Except for the following three:

**Crystal Make: Crystal Orb Caster Type Magic, Defensive, B-Rank**

The caster forms and almost impenetrable orb of crystal around them, protecting them from most forms of attacks, however it leaves the user incapable of attacking themselves as well.

**Crystal Make: Crystal Knives Caster Type Magic, Offensive, C~B-Rank**

The caster creates as many knives as they wish out of crystal for close combat or as throwing weapons. The crystalline material is as before very sturdy.

**Crystallize Caster Type Magic Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary ?-Rank**

A or perhaps the basic skill of Crystal Make. Any kind of liquid, solid or gaseous substance the caster comes into contact with can be crystallized and then used for their own purpose.

**Shatter Caster Type Magic Offensive, Supplementary C~A-Rank**

Users of a solid Element that can be shattered such as Stone, Ice, Crystal... can choose to do so either stopping their creation coming under the control of an enemy or to blast the enemy with the resulting shrapnel.

**Chain Lightning Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank**

The caster shoots a bolt of lightning in a straight line that will after having hit it's initial target change direction towards the closest source of magical energy. This direction change only occurs once. This means an unaware user of this Spell can be hit by their own attack.

**Fire Storm Caster Type Magic Offensive A-Rank**

The caster creates a raging torrent around a certain person, object or location. The fire will continue to burn as long as a normal fire would.

**Amaterasu Formula 50 Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank**

The target of this Formula is surrounded from all four directions. The Formulas can be dodged either by jumping into the air or burying into the earth.

**Amaterasu Formula 60 Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank**

Above and below the target of this spell form an Amaterasu Formula that will explode a little while later. Dodging to any side is preferable.

**Snake/Toad Magic** **Caster Type Magic (Body Enhancement Type)**

These two magics are similar to Take Over magic because they grant the Caster attributes based on the animal they chose, however the caster themselves don't give up their human form and using the enhancements causes great exhaustion and places a good deal of stress on the body with prolonged exposure.

The body enhancements can be anything from Scales for enhanced defense, a greater nimbleness or even increased strength.

**Ghost Wounds Caster Type Magic**

This type of magic allows the caster to bypass the bodies skin to attack the inner body directly in other words, the caster is able to attack muscles, bones, arteries/veins and inner organs at their leisure. However the caster can't necessarily decide what to attack in the heat of the battle, but most of the time it is surely a crippling strike.

This magic enjoys great popularity amongst Assassins and Assassin Guilds, especially those that like to leave little evidence, for the delayed deaths it can cause. This is the reason the Magic Council of Fiore has decided to Outlaw this magic as of the year X735.


End file.
